A selection of those letters which have been published in the media
Kent Messenger - 22nd August 2024
In the aftermath of the recent disturbances it has become clear that the establishment, the government and the police are not dealing with offenders in an even handed manner.
Clearly attacks on mosques are wrong but very little media coverage has been given to reports of a Christian church in Wembley, where a statue of the Virgin Mary has been destroyed, of other Christian churches in fear of attack, or how shoppers fled Croydon's high street as a mob of men rampaged for more than a mile through the centre of town chanting "Allah Akbar". In addition a Labour councillor in Dartford gave a speech calling for those protesting about massive immigration to have their throats cut. He is now in trouble but many in his audience were clapping, and obviously concurred with his threats.
Those on the Left hysterically denouncing one side say very little about the aggressive behaviour of those on the other. The Home Secretary, and other ministers, have suddenly converted from liberal permissiveness to a belief in deterrent sentences when offenders dare to oppose the policies of the liberal left.
Nations are far better off if they are basically homogeneous. All this so called diversity does is create conflicting groups who, far from living together in harmony, end up fighting each other. The Left's mantra of Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity is a formula for never ending conflict within countries.
The liberals will never accept it, but the whole concept of multiculturalism is a myth, and it is shown to be so wherever one looks in the world. It is bad for all concerned.
Kent Messenger - 15th August 2024
Violence, damage to property, and looting are wrong, and clearly the police should not be a target for attack, as they are only doing their jobs, but it too simplistic to blame the recent riots in British cities on mindless thuggery, as there are serious issues which must be considered.
The so called progressives of the middle class have facilitated mass immigration, with its consequent effects upon employment, housing, and availability of sufficient medical care, yet have carefully avoided being inconvenienced themselves. The vast majority of those entering illegally have been transferred to working class areas such as Middlesbrough, while those living in rich enclaves in London and elsewhere have been unaffected. The Labour party, which once represented the workers, abandoned them, and now, through its mouthpiece the BBC, demonises them as far right, when in fact they are ordinary people afraid for the future of their children.
The people protesting have also been subjected to threats from the politicians, when nothing similar arose when those such as Black Lives Matter, Just Stop Oil and pro Hamas demonstrations committed illegal acts. It is clear that the elites hold the working class in contempt, and believe that they can treat them just as they please. The disturbances will perhaps have made clear that this is not so, and, while criminal acts must be punished, there can be no doubt that the troubles will continue unless very valid grievances are addressed.
Kent Messenger - 8th August 2024
Until last year I had believed that the abomination of anti semitism, although still prevalent in much of the world, did not have many adherents in the UK or the USA. However the reaction of so many, largely on the Left, to Israel taking action to punish those responsible for the murderous attack on innocent people last 7th October, while seeking to ensure that such an atrocity cannot happen again, shows that this ancient hatred infects very many in both our countries.
The Jewish people were the victims, but both the mobs marching in our streets, and moronic student protesters, ignore this fact, and instead accuse Israel of attempting genocide, as it tries to eliminate the terrorists of Hamas, who revelled in the deaths that they they caused, and have promised to repeat the slaughter if they get the chance.
Those, supposedly among the most educated, who are incapable of recognising the truth, and instead indulge in victim blaming, are unfit to be at university, but of course they are the products of the extreme left wing establishment which now dominates education.
The rot is everywhere, with large numbers of teachers determined to brainwash youngsters into believing the propaganda pumped out by extremists. Only a root and branch reform of the whole system can effect the necessary sea change, but of course this will not happen under a socialist government, which lacks the will to take any effective action.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 2nd August 2024
For years many of us have warned that the accountability so essential to a democratic system has been eroded by the creation of numerous quangos, and subordination to international organisations, the membership of which cannot be held directly responsible to the electorate, and whose existence enables politicians to avoid taking the blame for whatever is done by them. Of course this increase in bureaucratic power was seen at a higher level by the manner in which the European Commission allowed unelected apparatchiks in Brussels to overrule elected governments, something Labour seems determined to reinstate. International organisations, such as the ECHR are not answerable to any elected body.
Unsurprisingly the new PM, a lawyer to his fingertips, has always been in favour of rule by lawyers and bureaucrats, and now possesses the means to further increase the power of these quangos, and foreign organisations. We are already seeing warm words uttered about such bodies, and can be in no doubt that he and his government will seek to tie this country ever closer to the Brussels system of rule by appointed bureaucrats. The results will be appalling for democracy in this country.
Kent Messenger - 1st August 2024
Over several decades I, and like minded colleagues in, inter alia, the Campaign for an Independent Britain, UKIP and the Democracy Movement, sought to persuade the electorate that British membership of the European Union was bad for this country, and in 2016 the referendum proved that we spoke for the majority. Since then we have seen a contemptuous refusal by the political and bureaucratic elite to actually accept this verdict, with Brexit only being half done, and constant attempts being made to undermine it.
Now we have a government, elected by some by approximately one fifth of the total of those eligible to vote, which clearly intends to rejoin the EU in all but name, and possibly even going as far as to actually do so, flying in the face of the largest electoral decision ever taken in this country. Already we know that the EU is demanding that we once again surrender our fishing grounds to Brussels, and we can be sure that Labour will be happy to oblige.
Should all this come to pass it would be the biggest betrayal of democracy that we have ever seen in this country.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 26th July 2024
Only a couple of weeks since the election we can see the shape of things to come. That the PM has appointed Ed Miliband as Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero says much about the new government, as the latter is a green fanatic, who will do immense damage to this country. He has already banned the extraction of our own reserves of oil and gas from the North Sea, preferring to spend money we can ill afford in purchasing the necessary fuel from abroad. He also intends to use prime agricultural land as sites for solar farms, thus exacerbating the problem of Britain not producing enough food for the population.
All this is intended to reduce further the minuscule one per cent of global of emissions produced here, while the actual culprits such as China continue to pump out nearly thirty times that emanating from the UK. I trust that, when people are enduring blackouts, food shortages and hospitals in dire straits without power, the electorate will recognize who is to blame.
It is also indicative of the true nature of the Green movement that so many of its members are anti semites, as evidenced by comments made by a number of their candidates. They possess all the instincts of the fascists, determined to silence anyone opposed to their absurd beliefs, while harbouring that most ancient of hatreds, that of the innocent Jewish people. Their obsession with a ridiculous climate change theory obscures the fact that they are a thoroughly nasty organisation, antithetical to everything that the ordinary person wants, and a threat to democracy. Unfortunately we now face years of a government which will allow these people to run riot, so we may expect worse to come.
Kent Messenger - 25th July 2024
That the PM has appointed Ed Miliband as Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero says much about the new government, as the latter is a green fanatic, who will do immense damage to this country.
He has already banned the extraction of our own reserves of oil and gas from the North Sea, preferring to spend money we can ill afford in purchasing the necessary fuel from abroad. He also intends to use prime agricultural land as sites for solar farms, thus exacerbating the problem of Britain not producing enough food for the population.
All this is intended to reduce further the minuscule amount of emissions produced here, while the actual culprits such as China continue to pump out nearly thirty times that emanating from the UK. I trust that, when people are enduring blackouts, food shortages and hospitals in dire straits without power, the electorate will recognize who is to blame.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 28th June 2024
I have no doubt that Rishi Sunak is a decent family man, but he is a terrible politician. He has only been in parliament for nine years, but in that time, even though he himself was a supporter of Brexit, he turned on the man who won the 2019 general election for the Conservatives, and had promoted him beyond his abilities. Since becoming Prime Minister he has presided over an administration which has made endless promises, that have been left unfulfilled, and launched numerous policies that were either constantly postponed, or abandoned altogether.
He called a general election months before he needed to, at a time when his party was vastly behind in the polls, thus losing the possibility of benefiting from either an improving economic position, or the advent of what was attributed incorrectly to Harold MacMillan, as "Events, dear boy, Events".
Sunak's privileged background, and wealth, means that he does not understand the British working class, and this, combined with a lack of experience in parliament, and his own political ambition, have led to him being out of touch with those he needs to vote Conservative. His reliance on advisors, which led him into committing the major blunder of leaving the D Day memorial events to give a campaign interview, makes it extremely unlikely that he can now retrieve the situation. Those Conservative MPs who abandoned their greatest vote winner over a matter of cake, then threw out Liz Truss, elected by their own members, in favour of Sunak, will reap the fruits of their actions on July 4th.
Kent Messenger - 27th June 2024
I have no doubt that Rishi Sunak is a decent family man, but he is a terrible politician. He has only been in parliament for nine years, but in that time, even though he himself was a supporter of Brexit, he turned on the man who won the 2019 general election for the Conservatives, and had promoted him beyond his abilities. Since becoming Prime Minister he has presided over an administration which has made endless promises, that have been left unfulfilled, and launched numerous policies that were either constantly postponed, or abandoned altogether.
He called a general election months before he needed to, at a time when his party was vastly behind in the polls, thus losing the possibility of benefiting from either an improving economic position, or the advent of what was attributed incorrectly to Harold MacMillan, as "Events, dear boy, Events".
Sunak's privileged background, and wealth, means that he does not understand the British working class, and this, combined with a lack of experience in parliament, and his own political ambition, have led to him being out of touch with those he needs to vote Conservative. His reliance on advisors, which led him into committing the major blunder of leaving the D Day memorial events to give a campaign interview, makes it extremely unlikely that he can now retrieve the situation. Those Conservative MPs who abandoned their greatest vote winner over a matter of cake, then threw out Liz Truss, elected by their own members, in favour of Sunak, will reap the fruits of their actions on July 4th.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 21st June 2024
As we face a prolonged period of Labour government the electorate should face up to one overwhelming fact about socialism. It doesn't work.
Although there is an underlying egalitarianism underlying the ideology, the fact is that wherever it has been tried, it has failed, and made life worse for the people. The seventy five years of the Soviet Union reduced the ordinary Russian, and later East European people to relative poverty in comparison to their fellow Europeans in the West. The nightmare of North Korea sees those under the control of the Party living a life of semi starvation, and political oppression, while their compatriots in the South have a prosperous life. In Africa, revolutionary movements have seized upon socialism as the way forward, until to wreck their nations, while the chaos in much of South America is evidence of the utter failure of the system. Those nations which embraced capitalism have seen their economies grow, while they have not sacrificed the freedoms enjoyed by those in the West.
The fundamental problem is that not only does socialism go against the grain of human nature, it is an utterly hopeless kind of economic system. Films of ordinary people from behind the old Iron Curtain in tears when they finally witnessed something as simple as a Western supermarket are proof of this. Those imposing it penalise the parts of an economy which produces the wealth, which they tax to the hilt, while they seek to spend money the state does not have on their pet policies. As the inevitable result is that they cannot fund the latter they must either tax more, print money which causes massive inflation, borrow vast sums, thus mortgaging the future, or cut all those programmes which which they disagree, leaving vital matters such as defence swinging in the wind. Worse, in many countries, when socialist ideology comes up against reality, its advocates try to distort the latter, rather than question the former, resulting in many becoming undemocratic and dictatorial states.
The situation at the time of the Attlee government was totally different to any today, as the nation required a change of direction from the pre war selfishness of the Conservatives, but no one in that post war administration would have accepted the policies of their supposed heirs of today, with their obsessions on such matters as sexual politics, and their hardly disguised antisemitism. The modern Labour party is a home for every type of extremist who hate their own country, denigrate its history, and care little for the real problems of the working class. If they are granted a massive majority of seats the ordinary British people will come to rue the day they supported such a collection of ideologues who will destroy any hopes of Britain recovering from its present malaise.
The ragbag of left wing parties such as the Greens, and the Liberal Democrats, offer no realistic alternative, the former being obsessed with their theory of climate change, and the latter, as usual being all things to all people, while planning to put unelected bureaucrats in Brussels back in charge of Britain. Only a radical prioritisation of the interests of the British people can save us from a truly bleak future.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 14th June 2024
The behaviour of many of the reporters from the national media at Nigel Farage's press conference shows clearly just how shallow they are when it comes to political priorities. Instead of concentrating on policy issues they were determined to repeat constantly the same question regarding U turns, as if this was the most important matter involved. Nigel rightly asked one of these people if they had never changed their mind, and one should remember that John Maynard Keynes, much loved by the Left, once said "when the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?".
t is also pathetic that these arrogant media types think that the electorate should be given the benefit of their personal opinions when interviewing significant figures such as Nigel, or indeed any of those in public life. The aggressive attitude adopted by many, particularly from the BBC, goes far beyond a seeking after truth, and frequently involves making snide comments, or a false summing up what has been said by the interviewee, with final throwaway remarks making it obvious that the reporter has only contempt for the person involved.
This organisation which, despite having a duty to be impartial, continues to employ those who make it their business to treat us all with their inevitably left wing views, clearly requires massive reform.
Kent Messenger - 13th June 2024
We are already well aware of the utter failure of local authorities to deal with the numerous potholes rendering our roads unsafe, but this is not the only fiasco inflicted upon those attempting to travel.
Recently I drove from Tonbridge to Whitstable, a route I happen to know well, but it was very clear that no effort was being made to remove vegetation obstructing road signs, making things very difficult for those unfamiliar with the journey. Quite apart from direction indicators, even hazard warnings, and speed limit signs, are frequently concealed, often only becoming visible at the last moment, if that.
Councils are not performing the fundamental tasks for which they exist, but are often prepared to waste vast amounts on matters which only appeal to the political prejudices of the elected representatives, who find the mundane business for which they are responsible too boring. In addition far too much money is wasted on bureaucracy, based upon the diktats of HR departments, and the absurd ideology of so called equality, diversity and inclusiveness, as they prioritise the demands of vociferous lobbies, rather than the needs of the vast majority of ratepayers.
This country is shamed by its crumbling infrastructure, which increasingly makes us look like a third world nation.
Kent Messenger - 6th June 2024
In the past the National Trust was one of those quintessentially British institutions, representing one of the fundamentals of the national character, like Devon cream teas, holidays at Blackpool, or the changing of the guard. However in recent years it has been captured by the woke left, reducing it to yet another organisation obsessed with virtue signalling nonsense.
It has lost thousands of volunteers in the last year with some telling bosses they have been "abandoned", ignored, and treated with disrespect. One egregious case is of volunteers being relegated to back office tasks after they refused to wear LGBT pride lanyards. Despite the fact that over 93% of the population is heterosexual, it also asked volunteers at one of its 18th century palaces to wear face paint and glitter to mark Pride month. Volunteers at Ickworth in Suffolk were encouraged to dress in colourful clothes, don rainbow flowers in their hair, wear multi-coloured make up, and have their face or body painted.
The Trust's rewriting of history reminds one of Orwell's 1984, where the mutability of the past is one of the major elements in the tyranny of the Party. This is exemplified by the provision of notices in properties drawing attention to objects that may have had a relationship to slavery, or anything else that does not meet with the agenda of the liberal left. Advising people to avert their eyes from artefacts that may offend is attracting derision from some visitors, as we all know slavery was, and remains, abhorrent, but people take offence in being patronised in this way.
Now the Trust has decided to replace the term 'ethnic minorities' with 'global majority', as it launches an inclusive walking project. The latter term is now used by the woke in its efforts to provoke conflict between the non white and white races. Although the vast majority of those using it are themselves white, they are those who hate the nation, race and gender into which they were born.
The National Trust has completely lost its way, and those in charge should be replaced with those who love this nation, its history, and its culture.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 31st May 2024
Politicians, bureaucrats and private sector managers are increasingly resorting to mendacious claims about demand for services in order that they can get their way.
The local council claims that the demand for parking in Tonbridge does not justify maintaining the car parks currently available, a nonsense, as I have frequently found difficulty finding places at busy times. We all know this is so they can proceed with their absurd pet project of creating, inter alia, a town square in the area behind Sainsbury's. They have now compounded this by further asserting that there is insufficient public demand for the recycling bins around Tonbridge, again not true, as I have often found those available to be absolutely full. So much for all the policies advocating increased recycling.
The banks assert that they are closing branches because customers no longer wish to use them, but as I, and many others, can attest, this is untrue. I was driven to leave the bank at which I had kept my accounts for over fifty years by the changes that had been made to face to face services, which massively increased the time to achieve what I required in a reasonable time. The banks are trying to force everyone to go online, yet they then seek to avoid responsibility when customers are defrauded by the criminals who infest the Internet. When they can't succeed in coercing people to take this path they resort to debanking long serving customers. I am pleased to say that I found an excellent alternative in our local Nationwide branch, and hope it will stay open for many years to come.
It is bad enough for people to be deprived of various services at the whim of these arrogant functionaries, but the latter add insult to injury by insisting that it is actually at the desire of the public. There was a time when those tasked with helping people tried to do so, but now they prefer to just make false claims that are at best disingenuous, at worst deliberately downright deceitful.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 24th May 2024
The recent Eurovision song contest was not merely an absurd parody of what it once was, but clearly showed that it has been hijacked by elements who have political agendas.
Gone are the days when wholesome singers such as Lulu, Sandie Shaw and Cliff Richard represented our country, the first two winning, and Cliff coming second. Our 2024 entry was totally reprehensible, being more suitable for a showing at a disreputable nightclub, and certainly not appropriate for what purports to be a family programme. The fact that the public vote gave precisely no votes to this song proves how out of touch are the jurists who gave it points.
n addition, as one who visits Switzerland every year, I expect that, while they might have been pleased that their country won, the majority of the essentially conservative Swiss will not appreciate the distasteful presentation by their representative.
Of more importance was the usual ignorant virtue signalling by so called celebrities, as they queued up to attack Israel. They are totally selective as to whom they condemn for violence, ignoring the actions of the baby murderers of Hamas, while attacking Israel for trying to ensure that the Jewish people are not subjected to a repeat of such an attack. They clearly lack any knowledge of the history of the region, where every attempt by Israel to come to a peaceful agreement with the Palestinians has been met with refusal and violence, and many thousands of Jewish people have been killed by terrorists.
It is particularly ironic that, given the pervasive influence of the ideology promoted by sexual minorities on the show, so many of them oppose the Jewish state, when anywhere in the Middle East, except Israel, their community would find itself suppressed.
It is time we stopped participating in this unpleasant competition.
Kent Messenger - 23rd May 2024
One result of the pro Hamas marches disfiguring the UK and USA is to expose the hypocrisy, and obsessive anti Western ideologies, of those groups who like to claim that they hold the moral high ground on such matters as race, identity politics and the environment.
As far as the Greens are concerned their child saint Greta Thunberg has proved to be totally selective as to whom she condemns for violence, ignoring the actions of the baby murderers of Hamas, while attacking Israel for trying to ensure that the Jewish people are not subjected to a repeat of such an attack. She clearly lacks any knowledge of the history of the region, where every attempt by Israel to come to a peaceful agreement with the Palestinians has been met with refusal and violence, and many thousands of Jewish people have been killed by terrorists.
Her fellow so called environmentalists in Scotland and elsewhere have taken a lead in supporting the trans ideology, which has done so much damage to innocent youngsters, begging the question as to what the demands of such activists have to do with climate change, while they also share with such organisations as Stonewall the view that the LGBT lobby should oppose Israel. There is nothing more absurd that a group called "Queers for Palestine" should take such a stance, when anywhere in the Middle East except Israel they would find themselves oppressed.
The same position is also taken by groups such as "Black Lives Matter", who seem equally unaware that Israel is a liberal democracy, which treats all citizens equally, regardless of ethic origin. They ignore the fact that nearly thirty per cent of Israel's population are non Jews, who vote for, and hold official positions in, the Israeli government.
It is essential that the pseudo Marxist nature of those vociferous fanatics who dominate the extreme left is recognised for what it is, whether it be those mentioned above, or the ignorant antisemites setting up protest camps at some of our most highly regarded universities.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 17th May 2024
The causes of the disastrous performance by the Conservative party in the local elections are obvious. The leadership has made continual promises, but never actually implemented them, and even now many of the MPs insist on advocating being a centre, or even centre left, party, when clearly their opponents already occupy that ground. These people are not conservatives, but social democrats, who have more in common with their supposed opponents than they do with ordinary conservative voters.
Vital matters such as the still incomplete proper implementation of Brexit, the ending of mass immigration, a massive increase in defence spending, and the reindustrialisation of the UK, should be the proper concern of conservatives, yet we know will all be ignored by the careerists at Westminster. These policies will not be enacted by the current leadership, whose only policy seems to be that of Dickens' Mr Micawber that 'something will turn up'.
In 2019 the British people showed their enthusiasm for Brexit, and for Boris personally, but the bulk of the parliamentary party, who never really supported the former, appeased its vociferous opponents, and allowed nonsense about cake to cause Boris to be removed. If the party wishes to recover, then I suggest it should be Suella Braverman as PM, Priti Patel Home Secretary, Kemi Badenoch Chancellor, and, if he's willing, and following a quick appointment to the Lords, Nigel Farage as Foreign Secretary, with Boris returning, either via a by-election, or as a peer, to take charge of a genuine levelling up. Although a centrist, Tom Tugendhat would be a good choice for Defence Secretary, as he is an ex Army man, who recognises the need to rearm to face up to our enemies.
We know that this will not happen, and that Labour, or any of the other left wing offerings, will be worse, but that is why voters should turn to Reform, a true right of centre party. The current Conservative party now faces nemesis, as the electorate are tired of unfulfilled promises, and cowardly retreats.
BBC History Magazine - 17th May 2024
The article on slavery makes clear that Rome is today regarded in a far better light than it deserves.
Although unquestionably skilled civil engineers it was for centuries effectively a military dictatorship which attempted genocide in Carthage and Gaul, treated any people who defied it with unimaginable cruelty, murdering, mutilating and enslaving them, while enforcing domestic tyranny with vicious punishments, such as crucifixion.
It described its opponents as barbarians but were themselves organised, and disciplined, savages, who, did they exist today, would be regarded as more bestial than any other nation, barring the Nazis.
Their only redeeming feature was that, thanks to the conversion of Emperor Constantine, the empire was instrumental in enabling Christianity to become a global religion, whose values were the antithesis of those of Rome.
Kent Messenger - 16th May 2024
There is no mystery about the causes of the disastrous performance by the Conservative party in the local elections. In 2019 the British people showed their enthusiasm for Brexit, and for Boris personally, but the bulk of the parliamentary party, who never really supported the former, appeased its vociferous opponents, and allowed nonsense about cake to cause Boris to be removed. The leadership has made continual promises, but never actually implemented them, and even now many of the MPs insist on advocating being a centre, or even centre, left, party, when clearly their opponents already occupy that ground.
These people are not conservatives, but social democrats, who have more in common with their supposed opponents than they do with the ordinary conservative voters. They now they face nemesis, as the electorate are tired of unfulfilled promises, and cowardly retreats.
Policies concerning such vital matters as the still incomplete proper implementation of Brexit, the ending of mass immigration, a massive increase in defence spending, and the reindustrialisation of the UK, should be the proper concern of conservatives, yet we know they will all be ignored by the careerists at Westminster. These will not be enacted by the current leadership, whose only policy seems to be that of Dickens' Mr Micawber that 'something will turn up'.
I suggest that, if the party wishes to recover, then it should be Suella Braverman as PM, Priti Patel Home Secretary, Kemi Badenoch Chancellor, and, if he's willing, and following a quick appointment to the Lords, Nigel Farage as Foreign Secretary, with Boris returning, either via a by-election, or as a peer, to take charge of a genuine levelling up. Although a centrist, Tom Tugendhat would be a good choice for Defence Secretary, as he is an ex Army man, who recognises the need to rearm to face up to our enemies.
We know that this will not happen, and that Labour, or any of the other left wing offerings, will be worse, but that is why voters should turn to Reform, a true right of centre party. The current Conservative party is hopeless.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 10th May 2024
Although there is a long way to go it is perhaps possible that we have passed the high water mark of the damage being done to our society by the virtue signalling left, and that reality is, as ever, finally exposing their ideas as the absurdities they have always been.
The Cass report has illustrated that far too many organisations have allowed the distorted views of activists to influence their policies, and that vulnerable youngsters have been used as guinea pigs by those who wish to impose their warped creed upon the innocent. Even in Scotland most people have become alive to the fact that trans ideology, in particular that advocated by the Green party, is grotesque, and a major defeat has been inflicted upon them. Scottish Greens have even objected to calling the murderers of Hamas terrorists, but what that has to do with environmentalism is anyone's guess.
In Wales the ridiculous policy of enforcing a twenty mph on every road has been dropped as impractical, while, on a different front, the supposedly liberal politicians in Eire have been hoist by their own petard, as they now find that their insistence on an open border with the North, resulting from their desire to sabotage Brexit, has led to thousands of third world immigrants moving from the UK to Southern Ireland. They are now squealing about a situation they have themselves created.
It should also be penetrating the minds of those who choose to believe that all evils in the world are the fault of the West, and consequentially they must always support our enemies, that perhaps some of their other causes are not best served by so doing. Iraq's parliament has passed a bill criminalising same-sex relations, who will receive a sentence of up to fifteen years in prison, transgender people will be sentenced to three years' jail, a minimum seven-year prison term will be imposed for promoting same-sex relations, and a sentence ranging from one to three years given to men who intentionally act like women.
In Iran women are being sexually assaulted, tasered, and beaten in a crackdown on those refusing to observe strict dress codes, including such things as wearing a coat that is too short, or too colourful.
Many of those demonstrating in favour of such nations, despite their clash with Western values, are ignoring the realities. We remain accustomed to being called bigots by the left, but now we are being totally vindicated by the facts. Let us hope that all the idiocies of woke will soon join other failed ideologies in the dustbin of history.
Kent Messenger - 9th May 2024
The disgusting behaviour by students on university campuses in America, and now, as always, being emulated in the UK, clearly illustrate the manner in which our education systems have been undermined as a result of their infiltration by extreme left wing activists. When I was of an age to attend university in the 1960s students were frequently demonstrating about various political matters, but always on the side of genuinely liberal values, but their descendants are now protesting on behalf of the very opposite, as they march in support of terrorists, who, among other atrocities, beheaded Israeli babies on October 7th.
Obviously many of those involved are motivated by antisemitism, while interviews with others shows that in reality they have no idea of the facts of the Middle East, merely mouthing slogans devised by the former. Individual students have repeated the old canards about Jewish people controlling the world, or echoing the ancient blood libel beloved of those who hate the latter.
That the universities are now awash with ignorant bigots is largely due to the brainwashing to which they have been subjected at schools, where politically motivated extremists have been allowed to fill their minds with irrational absurdities, while objective historical facts are ignored.
That the universities are producing graduates with basically useless degrees, and distorted views of reality, shows that it is time for a complete root and branch reform as, while we do need those such as future scientists, doctors, dentists, and engineers, we do not need massive numbers of arts graduates, whose belief that they are entitled to well paid positions is now further undermined by the warped ideology they have been taught to believe.
The fact that much of this is the result of indoctrination at school demonstrates that many teachers, at both at secondary, and tertiary, institutions, must be removed from positions which they are using to corrupt young minds with an essentially fascist creed, while worthless courses should be scrapped, and the number of universities drastically reduced.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 26th April 2024
That the former managing director of Post Office Limited has admitted he did not know the organisation he led had the power to prosecute people says much about the managerial system which is undermining this country, and the malaise which now distorts the workplace in Britain, which is a consequence of ill informed decisions taken by those who have dominated our public life for generations.
We watch a magic circle of CEOs in charge of major organisations stumble from one crisis to the next, despite being paid obscene salaries, completely out of line with the vast majority of their staff, receiving massive golden handshakes, and golden goodbyes, and enjoying payoffs even when they have failed, and who appoint each other to these lucrative positions, with no thought for the damage this has caused to the country. Most have no knowledge of the organisations they infest, but merely bring a supposed 'managerial ability' to them, causing endless problems and destroying the very expertise which once distinguished such bodies.
We need, inter alia, those with railway engineering experience in charge of the railways, engineers who know what they are doing in control of the major utilities, clinicians running the NHS, and experienced streetwise coppers in charge of the police force, if we are to overcome the major problems with which we are confronted. Effective administration requires experience of the organisation involved, not membership of a self perpetuating elite.
Everywhere one looks there are hard working people making every effort to do their jobs, while being hamstrung by these incompetent managers, aided and abetted by the interfering bureaucrats of HR departments. Unless the current system is changed things will only get worse.
Kent Messenger - 25th April 2024
A youth service provider has been forced to close most of its 50 Kent youth clubs after KCC ended funding for commissioned youth services from April, in a move to save just under one million pounds. The council said it had to adapt to hard, financial realities, and services were to be provided through family hubs. The provider's CEO said that he has been told KCC were going to provide alternative centre based youth clubs, and detached youth sessions, but despite seeking information asking for months as to where those will be, no answers have been forthcoming
A large number of dedicated youth workers are being made redundant, while these closures represent a very great loss to the community, as such clubs have prevented the need for many young people to go into statutory services, and mental health services, meaning there is now no safety net for numerous youngsters. The KCC claims that moving to family hubs will help them better target services to young people where they are needed most, through a mix of on-site, online and community settings, yet those at the front line assert that they will only help very young children, not the teenagers in need. The inevitable result will be a rise in anti social behaviour, dealing with which almost certainly lead to greater expenditure than the amount saved.
In addition the KCC, as part of its responsibilities for road maintenance, has announced a programme to repair potholes, but it does not cover most of the smaller urban roads, and envisages patching rather than resurfacing, another short term, and ultimately pointless, endeavour.
The community charge on our property shows that approximately sixty per cent goes to the KCC, yet one wonders on what it is being spent. However we know part of the answer lies in the millions expended on dealing with the illegal immigrants arriving on Kent shores. It is a scandal that Kent taxpayers, while watching vital services being neglected, should be expected to pay for those who choose to leave the safety of France, breaking our laws, and becoming a burden on our public finances. In KCC's defence the ultimate responsibility to deal with this lies with the government.
Kent Messenger - 18th April 2024
In Shakespeare's Tempest one of Caliban's drunken companions, Trinculo, says "The folly of this island. They say there's but five upon this isle. We are three of them. If th'other two be brained like us, the state totters". In the context of today, and encompassing the much more numerous members of the political elite, it is obvious that most are indeed so brained, eventually leading to the collapse of our own island, and way of life.
The priorities of the vast majority of MPs, and peers, are first themselves, secondly their party, and lastly the nation. They subscribe to globalist beliefs, which reject the idea of national borders, while putting the interests of international organisations ahead of those of their own people. The result is that nothing the ordinary person cares about; problems with the fundamental fabric of the nation, roads becoming impassable due to potholes, rivers poisoned of by sewer discharges, and the NHS utterly failing to provide a service to millions on waiting lists, are corrected. Our infrastructure is on the point of collapse under the pressure of a virtually unlimited influx of arrivals from abroad, making such matters as providing enough housing impossible, yet these dolts do not care. Instead these virtue signalling liberals constantly seek to abide by the demands of supranational organisations such as the EU and the UN, or bow to the supposed great and the good, concerning what the latter deem to be international law. That a majority of the current Cabinet opposing leaving the ECHR makes clear that they put this undemocratic body ahead of our democracy.
On the wider stage the deplorable intervention by some members of the legal profession concerning the war in Gaza is heavily biased against Israel, largely ignoring the crimes of Hamas. Other lawyers point out that the UK is not obliged to take, and should not take, any of the specific measures recommended, such as demanding an immediate and permanent ceasefire, which would undermine current negotiations between Israel and Arab states, with its possibility of a temporary ceasefire, resuming funding to UNRWA, while ignoring the current investigations into that body's alleged complicity in terrorism, imposing sanctions on individuals and entities in Israel, without justification, and without any evidence of serious misconduct by them, or suspending sales of weapons to Israel, without evidence of systematic violation by Israel of international law.
As always one can depend upon the liberal elite to take the side of the enemies of the West abroad, and to fail the people at home. Despite their claims to knowing best they are truly simpletons, who should be ignored, and removed from the positions of influence they do not deserve, else our state will indeed totter, and fall.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 12th April 2024
It is obvious that the BBC has long been in the grip of the liberal elite, slavishly following the line that anyone who dares to disagree with the nostrums of the latter is either stupid, ignorant, or a fascist. The manner in which this supposed national broadcaster promotes only one side of the arguments on contentious issues such as net zero, illegal immigration, and the Middle East, makes a mockery of claims that it is impartial, while its laughable verify department merely confirms that any who differ from left liberal beliefs is to be vilified as being at best, wrong, at worst malign.
Those who recognize the reality are resigned to complaining without any effect, but now, in the run up to a general election, the bias of the BBC is a danger to our democracy, as its influence is out of all proportion to its deserts, yet it will undoubtedly sway votes by its deplorable coverage. This has been made manifest by the recent habit of presenters to refer to Reform UK as a 'far right' party, with all the connotations of the latter being extremist, and a risk to democracy. In fact the party is giving a voice to millions who have been patronised, and ignored, by the three main parties, who have more in common with each other than they do with the electorate.
It is not extreme to hold the view that to pursue net zero policies which are undermining our economy, and threatening power blackouts, is wrong. There is nothing immoderate in believing that those who use illegal means of gaining entry to this country should be prevented from jumping the queue of those prepared to seek admittance by legal channels. To argue that antisemitism plays a major role in the attacks made upon Israel is not unreasonable, and to demand that something be done about the level of crime in this country is not the mark of an extremist.
To the BBC those who question its partiality must be far out on the right of the political spectrum, as clearly the former would not accept the idea that, despite evidence, they are discriminating against anyone. Indeed those on the Left seek to suppress opposing channels such as GB News, in order that only their distorted views should be heard via the BBC. If the general election is to be fought on a level playing field the BBC should be obliged to cease its favouritism for the policies espoused by the woke minority which dominates its output.
Kent Messenger - 11th April 2024
Of all the damaging campaigns afflicting us perhaps the worst is the obsession of the chattering classes with net zero emissions. Most of the other absurdities of the woke could be easily reversed by any sensible government, as Acts of Parliament can be repealed, and fanatics removed from influential positions, but reversing the physical effects of pursuing policies based on a theory of climate change would require a great deal of time and money.
Even if one were to accept that so called greenhouse gases are the prime driver of global climate change, which is by no means certain, despite the assertions of those such as the BBC that the science is settled, this country is responsible for only about one per cent of emissions. Statistical surveys shows that China produces 30.7 percent, India 7.6 per cent, and Russia 4 percent , while even countries such as Iran, Indonesia and Turkey pump out more than the UK. The most prolific are not making any attempt to reduce these figures, indeed are still building fossil fuel power stations at an accelerated rate.
New official statistics confirm UK has cut emissions by 50% between 1990 and 2022, and the UK is the first major economy to halve its emissions, while also growing its economy by 79 percent, yet this is not enough for the zealots of Just Stop Oil who continue to block roads, attack works of art, and generally cause trouble, but not of course for those countries which are the major emitters.
We are sacrificing our industrial base, and putting future energy supplies at great risk, thanks to politicians of all the main parties seeking to virtue signal by demanding further reduction of our production of such gases. No doubt when the inevitable power cuts take place, hospitals cannot function, old people die in unheated homes, and wealth creating industries collapse, the vociferous activists now shouting for zero carbon will blame everyone except themselves.
A rational policy of allowing scientific advances to generate better means of power generation over a reasonable time could avoid all these dangers, but setting ludicrously short targets for achieving low carbon production proves once again that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 5th April 2024
Every day we see a new imbecility from the virtue signalling woke, whether it be public institutions producing policies which disrespect our values, comedy clubs which tell patrons to "check their white privilege at the door", or Church of England ministers extolling the virtues of being anti white, and anti men. My mother, went through two world wars, intense rationing, and, when my father lost his job due to ill health in the 1960s, struggled to raise two teenage sons on the pittance allowed by the state. I think she would find accusations of white privilege absurd, and insulting.
Of course the main source of all this nonsense is the intellectual elite, who have always hated their own country, and possessed only contempt for the working class. Before the war most were either sympathetic to Hitler, or Stalin. One only has to look at Diana Mosley, who was a British aristocrat, fascist, writer and editor, and the wife of Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists, while left wing icon George Bernard Shaw's admiration for the tyrant Stalin lasted, undimmed, until his death. The University of Cambridge harboured a nest of traitors, while in 1933 the Oxford Union passed a motion. "This House will under no circumstances fight for its King and Country", fortunately later ignored.
In those days sensible politicians ignored intellectuals, with Attlee saying "never listen to them, they are always wrong", while George Orwell, who knew them all too well said "The common people still vaguely subscribe to that doctrine of intellectual liberty and act on it, as it is the liberals who fear liberty, and the intellectuals who want to do dirt on the intellect."
Unfortunately these people now dominate public life, and have extended the objects of their hate to include our closest allies, in particular the USA while, as always, they are antisemites. Unless ordinary decent people fight back these arrogant, vociferous, bigots will succeed in totally undermining our society.
Kent Messenger - 4th April 2024
The declining quality of life in this country can be partially attributed to the selfishness displayed by an increasing number of people, who seem to have no concept of duty, or of adhering to our system of law, but prefer to demand the right to get their own way, regardless of the welfare of others. Many now feel that, if they wish to do something they will, even if it breaks the law, varying from those who use electric scooters and bikes where they are not permitted, through cyclists who arrogantly ride through red lights, cycle on pavements, or ignore one way signs, motorists who ignore speed limits, and parking restrictions, to those who dump immense amounts of rubbish in the countryside.
More serious criminals now treat the justice system with contempt, as they know that, with a police service more concerned with investigating people's opinions than catching offenders, a court system which hands out pathetically weak sentences, and a government that refuses to even build enough prisons, they have a good chance of avoiding any sort of meaningful punishment. Despite having access via GCHQ to one of the most advanced cyber agencies in the world the government does little to pursue conscienceless fraudsters who prey on the most vulnerable in our society.
Virtue signalling political activists excuse blatant breaches of public order, whether it be many arriving illegally on our coasts, those intimidating law abiding citizens with aggressive demonstrations, or activists disrupting people's lives in the name of climate change theories, claiming that their cause is so sacred it justifies whatever they chose to do.
Of course a determined government could make a significant difference by clamping down on the individuals responsible, but it once was that conscience, and a sense of obligation to others, was the most effective means of ensuring an orderly society, responsibility arising from within. However the decline in religious belief, coupled with a me first perspective, makes it very unlikely that this attitude can ever be resurrected.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 29th March 2024
The Conservative party has thrown away the enviable position it held after the last general election, and now faces a massive defeat at the next. They have ignored the opinions of those who supported them, and surrendered to the fashionable views promoted by the noisy denizens of urban enclaves such as the rich suburbs of North London.
As far as those in the South are concerned the government has betrayed them on so many issues: high taxes, rampant bureaucracy, increasing levels of crime, and anti motorists measures such as ULEZ and LRTNs, while utterly failing to do anything about the dreadful state of the roads, NHS waiting lists, and the provision of affordable housing for the younger generation.
The voters in the North who lent their vote to the Conservatives last time are furious as they have seen the gains to be made from Brexit largely ignored, the levels of legal, and illegal immigration reaching absurdly high levels, and the promises of levelling up not fulfilled.
Both sets of supporters are united by their anger at the ridiculous project to reach net zero, when this countries emissions are now among the lowest in the world, despair that our defences are crumbling, as Mr Putin eyes his next victims, and that the woke run riot, without any effort to counter their absurd demands, on, inter alia, sexual politics, and free speech.
A large part of the parliamentary party is now composed of social democratic careerists, rather than conservatives, who have more in common with their supposed opponents on the opposition benches than they do with their own supporters. If for once the electorate chooses to vote for those who stand for what the former believe in, rather than just against those who do not, then Reform could replace the Conservatives as the party of the centre right.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 22nd March 2024
Clearly, according to Steve Barrass an extremist is anyone who disagrees with him concerning the issues of the day. The global forces he extols have undermined our democracy, and put us in danger of defeat by the totalitarians but, according to him, anyone who opposes his views are petty nationalists, motivated by cynicism, bigotry, and malevolence, although in reality they are actually concerned about the direction this country is taking, and what the future will hold for our children if his beloved wokists triumph.
He attacks the idea of the silent majority, but those of us who always opposed British membership of the EU, who pointed out that the electorate did not support the Europhiles, were proved right in the 2016 referendum, which no doubt Mr Barrass opposed. It is this truth which the final lines of G K Chesterton's poem "The Secret People" addresses "We are the people of England; and we have not spoken yet. Smile at us, pay us, pass us. But do not quite forget." On so many matters the people are being ignored, not least the utter failure of the government to defend our borders from an influx of incomers which threatens to overwhelm our vital infrastructure, as we lack already sufficient things such as housing, and enough GPs.
His advocacy of compromise and collaboration would be fine if all sides genuinely adhered to such, but as we have seen in the marches taking place every week in London, there are large numbers of people who do not, and insist that their demands must be met in their entirety. This refusal to give an inch is also illustrated by those who seek the right to force gender surgery on youngsters in the name of their misbegotten trans ideology.
I fear that, in a few years, the results of the left liberal agenda dominating this country will paraphrase what was said of Christopher Wren's magnificent cathedral "if you seek their memorial - look around you", as the country becomes unrecognisable from that in which most of us grew up.
Kent Messenger - 21st March 2024
As the next general election approaches we hear warnings from the Conservatives that votes for Reform would be wasted, and would only let the Labour party win a landslide. Yet this is to ignore the fact that those who voted Conservative at the last election have been ignored, and indeed betrayed, as the government has reneged on almost all the promises made at that time, and pursued policies which have been in direct contravention of those for which their supporters voted.
The government has done nothing effective to stem the tide of illegal immigration, apparently actively encourages the numbers entering by legal routes, while failing to provide the additional infrastructure necessary to absorb such an influx, in areas such as housing, the NHS and education. Even the defence of the realm is being neglected, as the Armed Forces shrink. Their tax policy is penalising wealth creators, and weakening the economy.
The authorities wring their hands over antisemitic actions perpetrated by pro Palestinian marchers, yet do little to oppose them, while activists in public institutions are permitted to obstruct the policies put forward by our democratically elected representatives without any sanctions being applied. The woke virtue signallers run riot, undermining the gains so hard won by women over decades, and promoting the application of medical procedures to youngsters, suffering from no more than adolescent angst, in the name of so called trans rights.
The roads become ever more pitted with potholes, innocent people fall victim to online frauds, which a more vigorous effort to prevent could be instigated, and attacks on free speech increase by the day, without anything practical being done to oppose them.
It is the height of arrogance for the Conservatives to claim that they own the votes of those they have so shamefully neglected, and if only the silent majority would turn to a party which stands for what they believe in the former could be rendered redundant
Eastbourne Herald - 15th March 2024
I have visited Eastbourne on many occasions in the past seventy years, as it has always been my favourite seaside resort. I find it deplorable that, on my most recent visit, I discovered that parking is moving towards the use of a telephone app, rather than the simple use of cash as in the past.
This discriminates against those of the elder generation, who may not own a mobile phone, or find the use of these telephone apps difficult, or even impossible. Contrary to common belief many people find the expense of owning a smart phone prohibitive.
Taken in conjunction with the growing number of potholes disfiguring even the main roads, one must wonder whether the idea is to dissuade visitors even going to Eastbourne.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 15th March 2024
The proposals from Tonbridge and Malling Council for developing the centre of the town are absurdly ambitious, and at a time when money is short everywhere, cannot be justified. There are a number of important issues that should be addressed before any such changes are contemplated, not least the constant risk of flooding in the area concerned.
It is quite untrue to declare that the provision for parking in Tonbridge is excessive, as I have only recently been unable to find anywhere in the car park under threat, due to every place being in use, while events at Tonbridge Castle, or in the High Street, cause all available parking to be taken up.
Experience elsewhere teaches us that town squares, while acceptable during shopping hours, often become infested with anti social elements after dark, and become no go areas for ordinary citizens, while, given the paucity of decent shops in the High Street, with a proliferation of those that are empty, and of charity outlets, we do not need a new set added. There is certainly no need for a new hotel.
Should this go ahead residents may end up with greatly increased community charges, in order to finance a vanity project. However, if the constant changes of mind by Tunbridge Wells Council regarding development there are any guide, the Tonbridge project will probably still be undecided ten years from now.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 8th March 2024
K D Key is absolutely right about the parlous state of our defences, but then devalues the impact with the absurd contention that Brexit was in any way to blame for the neglectful way the Armed Forces have been treated by the politicians. In reality we are no longer obliged to spend billions on the membership fees for the EU, quite apart from the real savings that could, and should have, been made by abolishing all the regulations forced on us by Brussels bureaucrats, had Brexit been fully implemented, rather than obstructed by all those in the Conservative party who clearly opposed it.
In view of the increasing threat from totalitarian states the money thus saved, and indeed a great deal more, should have been spent on restoring our Armed Forces to a level which could deter a conventional attack on these islands. Instead it has been thrown away on such fashionable matters such as housing illegal immigrants in hotels, funding ultimately unsustainable numbers of those avoiding work, and pouring vast sums into an unreformed NHS, where it is greedily absorbed by useless bureaucrats.
If the eventual result is our defeat in the next war then all the pet projects of the liberal left, such as the net zero nonsense, the effort expended on the divisive Equality, Diversity and Inclusion movement, and toleration of absurd levels of immigration will vanish like the morning dew, as the victors will have no interest in them. However the former are too idiotic to realise this, so will continue to undermine our defence capability as they glory in their virtue signalling.
Kent Messenger - 7th March 2024
Your correspondent John Helm is incredibly naive in his opinions concerning defence, while apparently lacking knowledge of past historical events. He believes that we can survive by just ignoring the increasing threats posed by totalitarian states, and leaving allies to sink or swim as they are able. We went to war in 1914 to defend Belgium neutrality, while in 1939 it was because of Hitler's attack on Poland, so one must assume that in Mr Helm's view we should have just sat back and done nothing, although eventually as Churchill said "an appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last". A quote from Leon Trotsky is apposite "You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you", as it encapsulates the foolishness of thinking that one can avoid conflict by adopting the ostrich like posture of burying one's head in the sand.
My wife and I recently saw the new Holocaust film The Zone of Interest which horrifyingly illustrates how the majority of people in a nation can abandon human decency in the cause of an evil ideology, while watching, or reading, any biography of Stalin, makes clear how one man could deliberately terrify a population, and engineer the deaths of tens of millions, through starvation and mass murder in a political cause. The world is not civilised Britain writ large, but contains nations led by those who think nothing of killing unlimited numbers, and are willing to attack other countries in pursuit of their ambitions.
Unless we were to follow North Korea into turning the UK into an armed camp then, if we are to survive, we need friends and allies to stand by our side in defence of our values, and this involves responding to more than just overt military attacks on our own country. Mr Helm's suggestion that we do nothing until that eventuality occurs is a recipe for disaster.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 1st March 2024
Despite his general lack of charisma, and the equal lack of anything positive to offer, Sir Keir Starmer seems a decent enough chap, and the fact that he is married to a Jewish lady, plus his support for Israel after the barbaric attack by Hamas terrorists of 7th October, makes it certain that he is no antisemite. However the presence of Jeremy Corbyn in one of the latest marches by supporters of Hamas raises a very worrying possibility for the future. It is obvious, particularly following the recent events in the Commons, that Labour is thoroughly infiltrated with those who support Hamas, so Sir Keir, if elected as PM, may suffer the same fate as that endured by Andrew McIntosh in 1981.
McIntosh narrowly beat left-winger Ken Livingstone for the leadership of the Labour group in the GLC. However, the day after Labour won a small majority, he was ousted, and Livingstone voted leader of the Labour Group, and of the GLC, in his place by 30 to 20.
It is possible that, should Labour win a large majority in parliament this year, that the Corbynites could oust Sir Keir, and we would see an extremist as PM whom the majority of the country did not want, as evidenced by the result of the last general election.
Kent Messenger - 29th February 2024
Judging by its products there is clearly something very wrong with our education system. We are seeing youngsters, many of school age, marching in support of the terrorists of Hamas, displaying posters attacking the right of Israel to exist, and even chanting denials of the Holocaust. In addition a large number of those at university are supporting overtly antisemitic policies.
The Second World War cost this country dearly in lives, and in economic terms, yet we emerged with one certain gain, in that we had held the line against the most evil regime the world had seen, and contributed mightily to the final triumph, so that the world owed us an enormous moral debt. This is being negated as we see our Jewish compatriots under attack, not primarily from the usual suspects on the far right, but the from the virtue signalling, self righteous, ignoramuses of the Left.
In order to reverse this we must insist that all children are taught properly about the Holocaust, including a showing of the film Schindler's List, while the actual details of the barbaric attack by Hamas, particularly the assault on babies and women, should be disseminated widely. In addition an account of the continual unjustified persecution of Jewish people over centuries should be a mandatory part of the history curriculum. This will require a removal of those teachers, and university lecturers, who brainwash the young into believing the political lies, which the former maintain to be true.
Anyone who thinks it easiest to ignore the travails of the targets of these evil people should remember the poetic form of a 1946 post-war confessional prose by the German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemoller, about the Nazi's rise to power: "First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a socialist, then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist, then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak for me".
Kent and Sussex Courier - 23rd February 2024
For over sixty years, from the time I began work, until I retired, I was a member of my trade union, and indeed am now a life member, while I was chairman of the union branch for twenty years. For my first thirty years, and for many years before that, we had good industrial relations at the office, and the personnel department was effective in handling the usual matters which had aways been within their remit.
However as soon the employer appointed that parasitic, non profession Human Resources to manage staff matters things rapidly went downhill, and I am disgusted to see how, in the years following my retirement these people have been instrumental, in so many workplaces, in poisoning the atmosphere for genuine workers, and in undermining the efforts of those trying to actually perform the tasks for which they were employed.
HR produces endless, pointless policies which do nothing but interfere with the fundamental aims of organisations, while blocking competent employees from productive work, by involving them in the sort of woke nonsense beloved by these virtue signalling obsessives, provoking unnecessary divisions within previously contented workforces. They impose frankly stupid limitations on normal processes, and have spread their tentacles throughout the economy. I know of one office where they stopped financial managers from testing prospective staff in numeracy, despite the fact that the latter were applying for a post in an accounts section, as it would be 'discriminatory'. It is also no longer possible to obtain genuine opinions on references, as HR have deemed it unacceptable to criticise even the worst performing employees.
As rampant bureaucracy is undermining this country, HR are the shock troops, based on the false claims that all white people are racist, that all heterosexuals are homophobic, and that all men are misogynists at best, or potential rapists at worst, so all those who fall within these groups must be obliged to attend courses, led by arrogant woke bigots, enforcing the kind of self criticism beloved by Maoists. Merely to deny their false assertions is taken as evidence of guilt, and are forced to take so called re-education courses.
If this country is ever to return to sanity one of the first things to be done is for organisations, both private and public, to remove HR departments, and revert to what existed before the latter ever invaded workplaces.
Kent Messenger - 22nd February 2024
In Shakespeare's Hamlet Queen Gertrude has a famous line "The lady doth protest too much, methinks", to express her doubts about another's sincerity, and this charge can be laid at the door of the BBC. Not content with persuading one of its veteran broadcasters to invite ridicule by emphasising his perplexing belief that the channel does not spin stories, it has created a risible department, supposedly tasked with checking facts, called "Verify". The reality is that this is merely a smokescreen, attempting to obscure the blatant prejudice displayed by so many of its commentators, and reports which are totally biased. The gutless response to constant provocations from the likes of Lineker, and some of its anti semitic employees in its Middle Eastern section, are proof of this.
In the past few years we have seen the BBC openly side with Remainers over Brexit, declare that no one who dares to question the theory of climate change is to be given air time, as "the science is certain", a contention with which many disagree, allow the lunatics of woke to run riot in censoring programmes which dispute their insanities, and now clearly, thanks to anti semitism, sympathising with the terrorists of Hamas, against Israel, albeit it under the cloak of caring for human rights. Only this week we learnt that an episode of "Yes, Prime Minister" has been removed from broadcast because "it mentioned Israel", while previously censorship has been applied to much loved series such as "Fawlty Towers".
Our national broadcaster has become a disgrace, unpatriotic, and ridden with the views of the humourless far left, and the liberal angst of the arrogant middle class woke. It needs root and branch reform, with a total clear out of useless managers, politically prejudiced staff, and ignorant so called personalities.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 16th February 2024
The focus of media attention has moved on, the scandal of the Post Office has faded from the headlines, yet nothing substantial has been done to right the wrongs.
Alan Bates, the man whose persistent refusal to give in to the bureaucratic bullies responsible brought the matter to the attention of the public, has now received an insulting proposal of compensation, approximately one sixth of that he believed acceptable, while many other victims still await any sort of offer. It has even been suggested by post office security staff that some of those affected were in fact criminals, ignoring all that is known of the failures of the Horizon system. In one disgraceful case the Post Office continued to threaten two sisters over a 34,000 shortfall, even after a criminal trial was ruled out, and to involve debt collectors if they did not pay. The sisters, who were fired from their jobs at the Gorbals Post Office, agreed to pay 10,000 to settle the debt, even though they had not taken the money.
Meanwhile the interminable enquiry drags on, stretching into the future, providing only lawyers with any benefit. Of course as the fictional Sir Humphrey Appleby of the TV series Yes, Minister said, an awkward issue can always be kicked into the long grass by setting up a public enquiry, and this is a real world example of such. Many of those guilty of persecuting innocent people will no doubt either retire, or move on to other well paid sinecures elsewhere, while the Post Office saves money on compensation when victims themselves die.
If we had politicians of a stature even remotely approaching that of Sir Winston Churchill this matter would have been dealt with in an expedient manner, not allowed to languish. Or for the times of "Action this day", the policy which helped him win the war.
Kent Messenger - 15th February 2024
The British people are being taken for fools by an incompetent political class, which is supported by a bureaucracy committed to an agenda which is contrary to the wishes of the great majority. Despite it being clear that stopping illegal immigration is desired by most voters we see men with beards being allowed to claim that they are children, and now clearly false claims of conversion to Christianity being taken as a reason to gain admission. Does anyone in their right mind really believe that forty of those detained on the Bibby Stockholm in Dorset have suddenly found Jesus?
Regardless of what they claim the Conservative party, and its business supporters, are happy to tolerate large numbers arriving, as they provide cheap labour, and avoid the expense of training British workers. The left wing parties are ideologically committed to putting the interests of others before those of those they purport to represent, while the Civil Service is now totally biased in favour of the latter's agenda. While the Reform party has some good ideas it lacks the necessary outlook to defy and overcome the liberal establishment.
The only hope would be for a truly democratic, but radical, party to offer the people a real alternative, but this is probably not going to happen before the situation is beyond redemption.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 9th February 2024
This country is rapidly descending into anarchy. Despite risible claims by politicians, and the woke leaders of the police force, that crime is falling, the general public is well aware that, in reality, we are seeing an ever increasing rise in criminality.
Commuters endure interrupted journeys because of thefts of valuable wiring from railway infrastructure, some cars are becoming uninsurable because of the growing menace of catalytic converters being stolen, shoplifting is an almost risk free activity, and anyone who has sought police attention for burglary knows that, in most cases, they will just receive a crime number. Despite having GCHQ available the authorities do not pursue internet fraudsters who batten on the vulnerable. Offences such as riding scooters on pavements, putting pedestrians at risk, are just ignored by police, who anyway are never around to patrol high streets.
Serious crimes such as murder, with an increasing number of youngsters stabbed to death, are on the rise, but the authorities seek to conceal this fact by redesignating them as manslaughter, proving that there are lies, damn lies and statistics. Thousands of aliens break our laws by crossing the Channel in small boats, but the political class does nothing but wring its hands.
The causes of all this are easy to see. The police have been redirected to pursue anyone who dares to question the received wisdom of the liberal elite, destroying free speech, and thought, as they do so. The courts hand down pathetically weak punishments, when they should impose deterrent sentences. The authorities claim they they do not have enough prison places, when they should be building more. Worst of all the politician either bury their heads in the sand, or regard criminals as misunderstood victims, rather than those who thrive on the miseries of others.
Of course nothing will be done, until perhaps the tide of crime washes up against the homes of those who have caused this, when they will no doubt suddenly discover that they are to reap what they have sown.
Kent Messenger - 8th February 2024
John Cooper is correct in his comments about our readiness for war, but the situation is worse than he realises. The demise of our Armed Forces is accelerating by the day. Not only do we find that, thanks to absolute incompetence in failing to provide the necessary fighters to make them operational, our aircraft carriers are docked in British ports, rather than joining the fight in the Red Sea, but we are told that our frigates lack the capacity to launch missile attacks on land targets. To this must be added the almost certain loss of the Royal Marines assault ships, Bulwark and Albion, without any plans to replace them. The recruitment of volunteers to the forces has been outsourced to Capita, a company distinguished by its inability to fulfil any tasks given to it, guaranteeing that nonsense about equality and diversity will replace the need to attract those needed to fight.
In addition the undermining of steel production in the UK by the debacle at Port Talbot is yet more evidence of the massive damage being caused by the left liberal obsession with net zero. This country contributes about one per cent of the global greenhouse gas total, yet all three main political parties insist on further reductions, at a time when Russia, China and India are massively increasing their production of the same. The dreadful effects on our industrial base, is obvious.
As this madness continues the already parlous state of our Armed Forces will be exacerbated by the lack of any means of producing the hardware necessary to fight a conventional war, should we no longer be able to import such due to a world conflict. By constant cuts to the defence budget our political class has been betraying the nation for decades, and the reckoning will soon be upon us, as Russia spends vast amounts on her military in preparation for war. Those who have caused this will eventually find that they will reap what they have sown.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 2nd February 2024
The loss of 3,000 jobs at Port Talbot, and the further undermining of steel production in the UK are yet more evidence of the massive damage being caused by the left liberal obsession with net zero. That we should be cutting our own throats in pursuit of reducing already minuscule CO2 emissions, necessitating the import of products we can make for ourselves, is totally insane.
This country contributes about one per cent of the global greenhouse gas total, yet all three main political parties insist on further reductions, at a time when Russia, China and India are massively increasing their production of the same. Quite apart from the dreadful effects on our industrial base the government now intends to destroy large areas of arable land by installing solar panels, manufactured in China, thus making us even more dependent on importing food.
As this madness continues the already parlous state of our Armed Forces will be exacerbated by the lack of any means of producing the hardware necessary to fight a conventional war, should we no longer be able to import such due to a world conflict. Our political class has been betraying the British people for decades, but the net zero idiocy is the final straw.
consider what a defeat by our enemies would mean for their pet causes. They would find that the totalitarian states have no love for identity politics, net zero, the trans delusion, or their beloved Equality, Diversity and Inclusion theories. It is not just this nation's throats they are cutting, but their own.
Kent Messenger - 1st February 2024
The country into which I was born is dying. The British people have been betrayed by a dishonourable, witless political class, aided and abetted by incompetent, and grasping bureaucrats. Our defences have been neglected to the point where they are the weakest for centuries, while our industrial strength has been eroded to such an extent that we will soon be dependent on importing vital products such as steel from nations which are not our friends, and whom could cut them off at the drop of a hat. This all in the name of supposed financial advantage, ignoring strategic concerns, and on the altar of the nonsensical policy of net zero. The latter is being imposed on a nation which produces less than one per cent of global CO2 emissions, which many believe are anyway irrelevant to climate change. The Freedom of Thought, and Speech, for which we fought the last war, is being suppressed, as people fear for their livelihoods if they dare to oppose the nostrums of the woke, and many are fearful of the morons of social media.
The Conservatives stupidly appear to believe that tinkering with tax rates, plus issuing dire warnings about voting for an alternative conservative party, will win them reelection, while the main opposition parties are completely committed to identity politics, with leaders who are incapable of distinguishing between the biological reality of a man and a woman.
Yet the ultimate blame must lie with those who refuse to abandon parties which have so totally failed. As Shakespeare's Cassius in Julius Caesar says" Men at some time are masters of their fates, The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings". We know that, despite all the insults to the views of the silent majority, they will still vote for the same old parties. As Orwell says of the tyrannised population in his masterpiece 1984 "But the proles, if only they could somehow become conscious of their own strength, would have no need to conspire. They needed only to rise up and shake themselves like a horse shaking off flies. If they chose they could blow the Party to pieces tomorrow morning. Surely sooner or later it must occur to them to do it? And yet-".
It is probably too late now, and it will certainly be so in another five years. Those of us who have warned of this for many years are obliged, like Cassandra, to see the future, but to be disbelieved by those we seek to save.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 26th January 2024
The absurdities being perpetrated by the adherents of woke become more blatant day by day. Among the latest is that the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich has a new display in which our greatest maritime hero Lord Nelson is attacked by an invented deity described as the 'god like protector of all migrants', while the bust of a so called 'genderless being born of the sea' is placed next to those of real historical heroes such as Pitt, having been created in consultation with the transgender organisation Mermaids UK. How have those who allowed these abominations managed to insinuate themselves into one of our most important museums?
Meanwhile a Whitehall diversity ambassador told civil servants, working in schools, that children under the impression that were in the wrong gender should be allowed to take puberty blockers against their own parents' will. This person also claimed that there are as many genders as there are individuals, which will make the alphabet soup favoured, by those with non standard inclinations, about eight billion characters long. In reality many of these children, abused by these woke fanatics, will later come to regret that they ever listened to their ridiculous views, and wrecked the rest of their lives because of normal teenage angst. Indeed an increasing number are speaking about how they feel that they were misled, and abused, by the so called charities advocating medical interventions, where none were actually required.
Decent people should demand that these lunatics be ignored, and removed from any positions where they can inflict their views on others.
Kent Messenger - 25th January 2024
Despite the public exposure of their multiple failings the bureaucratic class continues on its merry way, betraying the ordinary people in pursuit either of personal advantage, or to further the ideology of woke. One would have thought that the post office would now be co-operating with plans to exonerate, and compensate the innocent postmasters whose lives have been turned upside down by the defective Horizon system, but in fact they are placing obstacles in the way. Victims have been told that it could take 32 weeks to produce details of their personal accounts, without which they cannot even begin the process of claiming payments. How on Earth can it take over six months to find, and forward the required details? Clearly the bureaucrats are hoping that people will give up, or even die, so that the case against these incompetent bullies can be undermined, or at least kicked down the road.
Another set of abhorrent bureaucrats has taken root in the Civil Service, particularly in the Home Office, where these functionaries, paid to implement the decisions of elected representatives, are doing all they can to obstruct actions intended to put an end to the flood of illegal immigrants arriving on our shores on a daily basis. When I joined the Civil Service six decades ago it was always clear that the latter was supposed to be impartial, not permitting their personal views to interfere with the policies upon which the ministers in charge had been elected. While that excellent series Yes Minister showed how this ideal was not always followed, the Sir Humphreys of those days would never have been so blatantly in opposing the government, while the ordinary civil servants would never have thought of actually sabotaging what the politicians were attempting to implement.
An investigation by journalists has been informed by insiders that the entire organisation is rife with chaos, woke ideology and incompetence. This deliberate defiance of the wishes of the electorate has been encouraged by people at the very top, who are obsessed with the nonsense emanating from the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, and Critical Race, theories which are doing so much damage to so many major institutions. All this is exacerbated by the fact that employees are being allowed to work from home in defiance of instructions, made by senior government figures, that they should return to the office.
Politicians must take back control, otherwise the people will be wasting their time at elections, if unelected bureaucrats are to override those that the voters have put in office.
Kent Messenger - 18th January 2024
Recent reports as to the state of the Royal Navy highlight the parlous condition to which our national defences have been reduced. Over centuries it was the Navy which defended these islands, and indeed did much to create the modern world. At the outbreak of the First World War we had over four hundred warships, while in 1939 it was still the largest in the world, with over three hundred. Today it has been reduced to twelve frigates, six destroyers and two aircraft carriers, while two frigates are now to be mothballed because of a lack of sailors, and the Navy is advertising for the position of rear admiral to command our nuclear forces.
Every time governments are short of money the amounts allocated to defence have been the targets for reduction. We now have the smallest army in centuries, the navy is no more than a shadow of its former self, and the air force could not sustain an effective defence of this country for any length of time. We are told that some senior British and American officers are saying that, in the event of a major war, the British defence forces are on the cusp of being unable to defend this country. Only the threat of using our nuclear weapons would remain, but, as a reaction to conventional attack, this could not be used.
A triumphant Russia would not be content with conquering Ukraine. We may see first the Baltic States, and then the nations of Eastern Europe being attacked one by one, before Putin turns his baleful eye on Western Europe and the UK, as, if Ukraine falls, then the protections offered by NATO, given the growth of isolationism in the USA, may very well be proven illusory.
To allow our defences to shrink, when facing the increasing threat from implacable enemies is insanity, but one of which we have been guilty of in the past. In the 1930s it was Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Militaristic Japan, today it is Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. However this time we lack the power of a mighty Royal Navy, and the industrial strength to endure war. We must be mad.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 12th January 2024
The recent series on the Post Office Horizon scandal highlights the manner in which unaccountable bureaucracies have undermined democracy, and been allowed to treat decent, hard working people with contempt. Most literate people will know of Orwell's 1984, which so accurately predicated the nightmare of lies, and the twisting of reality, we now see in the ideology of woke, but it is the lesser known works by Kafka, such as The Trial, which invoke a world where innocent people are persecuted by arrogant apparatchiks of the state without effective means to defend themselves against false, or even unspecified, claims, of having committed offences for which they must endure punishment.
It is such bureaucracies, which have grown like Topsy, that are sucking the economy dry in order to provide obscene incomes for those who are basically parasites, contributing nothing to organisations, but obstructing those who are trying to fulfil the actual tasks for which the ministry or company exists. These executives, in private companies as well as the state, have corrupted major institutions such as the police, where ordinary coppers are diverted from fighting crime to policing private thought, the BBC which is now merely a mouthpiece for the extreme liberal left, and of course the NHS. Increased funding for the latter is wasted on the army of HR staff, whose only contribution is to impose policies based on their ideology of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, which is divisive and does nothing for patient care. Taxpayers are forced to pay for pointless pen-pushers to write endless memos to each other, while holding countless valueless meetings
To drive back this tide of entitled and incompetent administrators would be a task worthy of Hercules when cleansing the Augean stables, and our cowardly political class will not make the attempt. The innocents whose lives were disrupted, and in some cases ended, by the disgusting behaviour of Post Office executives, will not be the last victims.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 5th January 2024
In his attack on my recent comments about economic migrants Ralph Steerpike shows that he is in the tradition of those, ostensibly liberal, who have nothing but contempt for the working class.
I remember how, in the 1960s, my father lost his job as a postman due to acute kidney disease, and how he struggled to find another, while my mother was trying to raise two teenage boys on five pounds a week. In those days people like Mr Steerpike were wont, as they are now, to describe the unemployed as work shy, and as the undeserving poor.
My wife comes from a steel worker's family in Teesside, and, from our many visits to the area, it has been clear that youngsters are faced with a total lack of decent jobs, something that afflicts the whole of the old industrial regions of the North. No doubt Mr Steerpike would also condemn them as lazy.
Anyone not determined to close their eyes to reality can see that, apart from a token sprinkling of women and children, the vast majority of those arriving on our shores illegally are young men, and are obviously economic migrants, not genuine refugees. This government's response has been to transfer the majority to areas such as Teesside, to ensure that their own supporters in more prosperous areas avoid the impact of such an influx.
The solution to any labour shortages is not to allow vast numbers to arrive from overseas, but to ensure that the wages of those indigenous workers performing the tasks required are properly paid. The laws of supply and demand mean that, if demand for something, be it goods, or labour, exceeds supply, then its price should rise. This would ensure that there was an incentive for those currently drawing unemployment benefit to seek positions in employment, even in less attractive posts.
Clearly it is easier for those such as Mr Steerpike to belittle his fellow citizens than to admit that our politicians prefer to virtue signal, rather than protect the interests of the British people.
Kent Messenger - 4th January 2024
Somewhat simple activists for various causes always seem to think that there are easy solutions to major problems.
Those who like to think of themselves as peace campaigners love John Lennon's song "All we are saying, is give peace a chance". At first glance this seems a benign sentiment, but unfortunately that is not all they are saying. In the face of implacable enemies, who desire our destruction, the peace advocates would throw away our weapons, put flowers in their hair, and expect our opponents to do likewise. In reality the latter would then trample us underfoot.
In the 4th Century AD St Augustine formulated the theory of a just war, asserting that peacefulness, in the face of a grave wrong that could be stopped by only violence, would be a sin, while in the early 5th Century AD Roman writer Renatus created the Latin adage "Si vis pacem, para bellum" translating as "If you want peace, prepare for war" and meaning that if you face an aggressive adversary, build your military strength so that the adversary knows that, if it launches an attack, it will receive a punishing response, and will therefore be deterred. Near our own time in 1900 Theodore Roosevelt, before becoming the 26th US President said "speak softly and carry a big stick".
Similarly the "Just Stop Oil" group seem to asking for one straightforward action to prevent what they regard as a climate emergency. Rather than "Just" anything, what it would mean is that the industrial infrastructure upon which millions rely would be destroyed, we would lose the means of heating our homes, or, unless living in big cities, be unable to travel any distance. It would wreck our civilisation, kill millions, and put humanity on the road back to the caves. The sensible approach would be to encourage scientific developments which, in a reasonable time period, would produce viable alternatives to using most fossil fuels, although it will never be possible to abandon them entirely.
A majority of those who are most vocal in support of irrational reactions to these issues tend to be young, and the problem is that they have been indulged by parents, who allow them to think that their opinions are both original and brilliant, while they have been brainwashed within our poor educational system into believing the nostrums of the extremists. Good teachers are intimidated by ideologues to not dare to oppose fashionable opinions, while bad ones are committed to the hard left.
If we are to survive as a society we must cease to tolerate disruption caused by those who shout the loudest. Empty vessels make the most noise.
BBC History Magazine - 1st January 2024
Napoleon was not the 19th Century equivalent of the dictators who dominated the 20th. Although autocratic he restored order after the chaos of the revolution without recourse to a police state, and laid the groundwork for a political system which has survived to today. He showed toleration as, when he occupied Malta in 1798, he abolished slavery and feudal privileges, while Jews were given equal rights to Christians.
In the end his wars cost an immense number of lives, yet the vast majority were forced upon him by the monarchical states of Europe, who feared losing their privileges. Unlike those psychopaths Hitler and Stalin he was a truly great military commander, praised by Wellington as the greatest since Caesar, and also unlike them, his letters to the women in his life show a romantic man, often suffering from self doubt.
Although his later career saw his original ideals often undermined by the reality of power, he was from the first a believer in the principles of the Revolution, as a reading of his letters and general writings make clear, while Hitler was essentially a nihilist, and Stalin a vicious tyrant. Napoleon's army loved him, while those of the latter were motivated by fear.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 29th December 2023
When discussing immigration it is often said that the solution is integration of migrants providing a solution to the problem. However this assumes that such integration is possible, and the fact is that, for some, it is not.
Integrating those from cultures very similar to ours is easily achievable, for Europeans, such as Poles, and Ukrainians, are from basically Christian nations, as indeed for the same reason it is for those from places such as the West Indies, who also have the advantage of speaking English.
It is harder when the migrants come from countries with very different attitudes, largely based on centuries old beliefs, but for most any such differences cause minimal friction with the host community. We welcome valiant allies such as the Gurkhas, admire the qualities of those such as the Sikhs, and have no issues with the Hindus, whose lifestyle is peaceful. Over the centuries we have assimilated many minority groups, such as the Huguenots and Jews, who have become part of our nation.
Where everything fails is with those who have come in large numbers from the Middle East, and the subcontinent. Many are of course able to fit in, but regrettably there are also many who cannot, or will not, accept British values, even though they intend to live here, as their fundamental beliefs, and actions cannot be reconciled with ours.
Those who come from countries where women are treated as second class citizens, those of a different sexual orientation are excluded from society, parents can dictate the lives of their children to the extent that for the latter to disobey may suffer honour killings, and to wish to leave their religion is to risk death, cannot be expected to integrate with a people who reject all such beliefs, and indeed it becomes more obvious every day that not only in the UK, but across Europe, attempts to square this circle are failing. The recent demonstrations in our cities where calls have been made for attacks on our Jewish compatriots are proof enough of this, as is the attitude to young British girls displayed by grooming gangs.
Those who claim that this is not so are deceiving themselves, and creating a situation which will result in misery for many from both communities, while laying the foundations of a conflict which will undermine our society.
BBC History Magazine - 25th December 2023
Your correspondent Hallgeir Dale gives a very questionable assessment of the First World War.
Although terrible it was great in the sense of scale, involving as it did all the major industrial nations.
From the point of view of the Western democracies it had to be fought to prevent what amounted to a semi feudal monarchy taking over Europe. Those men who died were not the victims of what he describes as a silly British obsession, but knew very well high the stakes were, and fought for our way of life.
His absurd contention that we did not win flies in the face of the facts. Clearly we did, albeit at an enormous cost, and given the ambitions of the Kaiser, there was no way in which it could have been over in a few hours. Indeed we were fortunate that the German military lost their nerve, otherwise it could have dragged on for a great deal longer.
Mr Dale writes from Norway which, despite its declared neutrality, did in fact help the Allied war effort, as they recognised that a German Europe would be a disaster for them as well.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 22nd December 2023
The response by Ralph Steerpike to my recent letter shows the extent to which he is viewing the world through rose tinted spectacles. If the interpretation of the law were as clearcut as he asserts we do not need judges, as abiding by a computer decision concerning the law would be sufficient, but in reality we must rely on fallible humans to make such rulings. Unfortunately the judicial profession is drawn from essentially the same strata of society, and its members share similar assumptions with each other, but not with the ordinary people.
Judges may be very confident that however many people enter this country illegally none will threaten their own jobs, unlike those of the working class being faced with unfair competition for limited posts. Nor will they live in areas the very nature of which are changed by massive influx of those with a different cultural inheritance, and it seems unlikely that the neighbourhoods where supreme court judges live will host many who regard women as second class citizens. Judges are just as likely as anyone else to allow personal circumstances, and prejudices, to influence their decisions, and they cannot be immune from challenge.
As is usual for those such as Mr Steerpike he attacks populists, as if to wish to endorse the desires of the majority were reprehensible, this being the defence the liberal elite use to prevent the policies they favour being opposed, but his refusal to recognize that there is, and always has been, massive support of capital punishment is itself risible, as every poll taken on the issue has showed a majority in favour of restoration. He attempts to muddy the waters by, as is now a refrain from liberals, of claiming that their opponents somehow support the dictatorship of North Korea, but this is nonsense, as the latter execute political dissidents, not necessarily murderers. He also carefully omits to mention that the USA, one of the world's greatest democracies, also applies the ultimate sanction to those who murder others.
When decent people see those who may have tormented, and then killed little children, escaping the just punishment for their crimes, and totally innocent people increasingly being knifed to death on our streets, they are sick of those whose seem to be more concerned for the welfare of the killers.
Finally his belief that we cannot be bound by treaties is wrong, as, until we thankfully escaped the grip of Brussels, this was how the EU imposed its will on us, something it still does on those foolish enough to remain within its grasp.
Kent Messenger - 21st December 2023
Recent events provoke one to imitate Churchill to point out that rarely has so much hot air been expended by so many to produce so little.
There is the Covid inquiry which, far from seeking out the best way to confront a future pandemic, is merely providing a means for politically motivated lawyers using hindsight in an attempt to apportion blame to individual politicians regarding errors made during the last, in particular attacking Boris Johnson. Then there is the risible policy being put forward by Rishi Sunak to stop illegal immigration, which anyone with any brains knows will be rendered completely useless by the inevitable actions of international lawyers, while the pious hopes of the climate change summit will produce precisely nothing.
Regarding Covid we do not need to spend millions in order to appease those who only real motive is to cry 'gotcha', rather than offering hope that things will be handled better next time.
The solution to the invasion of our coasts is simple as, for a fraction of the money already spent we could build barracks, in areas remote from major population centres, where all those arrested for attempting to enter the country by illegal means could be housed. They could be fed, given medical attention, and education for children, but not allowed to leave until processed. It could then be made clear that those failing the criteria for legal entry would remain where they were until they were prepared to return to their country of origin. This would require legislation to prevent lawyers, international or otherwise, from interfering.
Finally, the so called breakthrough at COP28 is meaningless, and the money spent of this jamboree would be better spent alleviating the effects on people of living in areas which a dynamic climate will adversely affect as natural processes progress without any input from humanity.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 15th December 2023
We have learnt that the cost of the Rwandan policy is now approaching 300 million pounds without even one illegal immigrant being deported, while the utter failure of the establishment to confront the reality makes it unlikely that any ever will be using this scheme. Indeed it now seems that Rwanda itself may veto its use.
For a fraction of the money already spent we could build barracks in areas remote from major population centres where all those arrested for attempting to enter the country by illegal means could be housed. They could be fed, given medical attention, and education for children, but not allowed to leave until processed. It could then be made clear that those failing the criteria for legal entry would remain where they were until they were prepared to return to their country of origin. This would require legislation to prevent lawyers, international or otherwise, from interfering.
That none of this will happen is due to the fact that the tattered remains of the Conservative party are incapable, and the main opposition party unwilling, to take any such action, so the invasion of our shores will continue indefinitely, until such time as an enraged populace turns to others to do what is necessary. The virtue signalling liberal left will then reap the whirlwind that they are sowing today.
Kent Messenger - 14th December 2023
Most people know of the Holocaust, but many are unable to actually comprehend the reality, as no decent person, raised in a liberal democracy such as the UK, can truly believe that, in living memory, a supposed civilised country was led by demons from hell. Can we, who live in an imperfect, but basically tolerant, society grasp what it must have been like to be innocent, yet to lose one's job and possessions, to be treated like dirt, and finally to be killed, no matter how good a life you tried to live?
Jewish people were expelled from society, persecuted, and finally murdered merely for the crime of being born. Millions went to the extermination camps, where mothers saw their children killed in front of them by pitiless barbarians. No mercy was shown to any, and they suffered death in all its gruesome forms, with gassing, hangings, crucifixions, starvation, burying alive in killing pits, and enduring medical experiments at the hands of the Nazis.
Now we have seen some demonstrators, including children, on these so called pro Palestinians marches, waving banners, and chanting that Hitler was right, and that Jews should be in camps. These people shame themselves, and those, who in any way facilitate such actions, are beneath contempt. It is reported that some teachers are encouraging these youngsters, thus making clear just what sort of propagandists in schools are now poisoning the minds of the young. Such people should be dismissed, and prevented from ever again being employed within the profession.
Antisemites must be prevented from creating widespread roots in the UK.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 8th December 2023
Since the time of the civil War the sovereignty of parliament has been based upon the sovereignty of the people, and, in his response to my comments, Edward Baker seems to recognize this. However he then modifies this basic principle in ways which would render it meaningless.
While it is true that judges are supposed to decide cases in accordance with the law they are not operating in a vacuum, and their personal prejudices inevitably come into play. As the vast majority are the product of the supposedly liberal establishment, this now frequently influences their deliberations in ways which run contrary to the wishes and intentions of the elected government, despite being based upon the vote of the electorate.
Even worse is the belief that, because a British government decides at some point to sign an international treaty which limits its freedom of action this cannot be revoked, even if the treaty is later amended in ways that the original signatories would never have accepted. It would imply that a treaty signed in, for instance, 1936, must remain the law of the land, even if the vast majority of citizens now oppose it.
To give a concrete example. All the time we were a member of the EU we were prevented, by treaty, from reintroducing the death penalty for murder. As ordinary people see the number of deaths relentlessly increasing, although the authorities have tried to conceal this by designating so many murders as manslaughter, polls show that most support the execution of those who kill the innocent, particularly children. Until we broke free from Brussels a party, which advocated this policy, having being elected with a substantial majority, would have been unable to enact the will of the people. No doubt those who oppose such a proposal would regard this as acceptable, but it would totally undermine the principle of sovereignty.
Comparing the desire to see the democratic wishes of the people conflated with the foul dictatorship of North Korea is both insulting and wrong. Mr Baker may be happy to see this country ruled by international lawyers. I am not.
Kent Messenger - 7th December 2023
Although the BBC leads the field in displaying anti Israeli prejudice, such as putting forward the absurd view that the numerous automatic weapons found in the Al-Shifa hospital might belong to the hospital security department, many of the reporters from Sky News are also singing from the same hymn sheet.
While it has been a pleasure to see straight talking Israeli spokesmen confound those who attack Israel, one of the former was recently reduced to a temporary stunned silence by the utter stupidity of a question which stated that, as 150 Palestinians were to be released in exchange for 50 Israelis, did this not mean that Israel regarded the lives of the former as being less valuable. When he recovered his composure the Israeli pointed out what was obvious to anyone with half a brain, that Hamas insisted on this ratio, indeed at first demanded more, and that to insist on the implementation of a one for one exchange, as Israel would prefer, would mean no swap at all.
The broadcast media consistently discounts any statements by the IDF, claiming that they are unverified, but blatantly accepts assertions by the terrorists, from accusations of Israel bombing a hospital, later proved to be untrue, to denials by Hamas of hospitals being used as military command sites. The latter has been shown to be correct, yet still such reporters will not accept the evidence of their own eyes. One senior BBC reporter later admitted that he had been wrong about such claims, but then said "I don't regret a thing". The bias, and arrogance, of these people is almost beyond belief.
It is a disgrace that this relentless pro Hamas propaganda pumped out by biased reporters is fuelling Anti Semitic demonstrations in Western cities, and is influencing politicians to demand a ceasefire which would leave Israel at the mercy of future outrages.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 1st December 2023
If the Conservatives really want to win the next general election they need more than to attempt to bribe the electorate with financial policies based on smoke and mirrors. However, as it would involve actually doing something, not just talking about it, they probably will fail. They do not have time for any long term solutions, but they could both take executive action, and also pass urgent legislation to achieve concrete results in the next twelve months.
All employees of the state should be told return to work immediately, or be sacked. Every business which provides a service to the public, especially those concerned with the utilities, should be obliged to provide workable customer services, not hide behind websites, and moronic chat lines run by robots, and to eschew call centres located abroad, which in any case do not answer the telephone until customers have endured unconscionable delays.
A government backed bank, supported by the taxpayers should be created, which will put an end to the deplorable practice of closing accounts for individuals and businesses for specious reasons. In view of the horrendous immigration figures decent detention facilities should be built urgently, where illegal immigrants can be detained until they can be deported, while an immense reduction in legal migration must implemented. The police should be ordered to clamp down on protests which are an affront to our basic values, and those which represent minority obsessions, but which disrupt life for many thousands.
In view of the constant bias shown by the BBC coverage any renewal of the TV licence fee should be refused, and the organisation left to fend for itself against commercial providers.
There are of course many major problems which cannot be dealt with before the election, such as root and branch reform of the NHS, but a determined administration could show that it was intent on addressing the various crises afflicting us, rather than wringing its hands, and making long term commitments which, given the state of opinion polls, it knows it will not be called upon to fulfil.
BBC History Magazine - 1st December 2023
I was surprised that, in his article about how nations have used sport as propaganda, Mat McDowell did not mention the most egregious example of modern times, East Germany.
I am sure that anyone of my generation will remember how the Olympic Games featured that country as a major medal winner, although it was obvious that the state was pouring money into their efforts. The comparison between the basically amateur athletes of the UK with the almost robotic products of that small totalitarian nation made a mockery of results for many years.
Kent Messenger - 30th November 2023
Events have confirmed the true nature of the activist movements that have inflicted their opinions on us recently, making clear that they are the direct descendants of similar past organisations, such as CND, and the Greenham Common women, the majority of whose followers were at best naive and gullible, and, given the reality of what eventually happened, completely wrong.
The absurdity of the existence of such organisations as Queers for Palestine, when Islamic states jail, or even execute sexual minorities, and the stupidity of women supporting Islamic states who, whenever they can, treat them as second class citizens, is obvious to all but those involved.
In addition that child saint of the Green movement, Greta Thunberg, during a climate change protest in Amsterdam, gave the microphone to Sara Rachdan, a Palestinian activist who has called for the destruction of Israel, and also perpetrated a video falsely purports that Israel is gassing Palestinians. Greta has led chants of the slogan "From the River to the Sea", and stated that "there can be no climate justice on occupied land", no doubt not noticing that China has occupied Tibet for decades. Just what has the dubious theory of climate change got to do with the issue of Hamas thugs attacking defenceless babies?
A prominent 'trans' activist praised Osama Bin Ladin's attack on the US in September 2001 as "one of the most principled and defensible things he has done", a statement which raises the question of what Islamic terrorism has to do with minority sexual politics.
One can only guess what the supporters of Black Lives Matter would say if a movement espousing the slogan Jews Lives Matter were to hold a march, but one doubts it would be in favour. Some members of Just Stop Oil, and Extinction Rebellion have also weighed in against Israel, while unsurprisingly Stop the War takes a totally one sided, pro Hamas, approach to the war in Gaza.
Those decent people who are tempted to support this collection of agitators, and extremists, for what they believe to be good reasons, should think very carefully about whether they really want to associate themselves with the latter.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 24th November 2023
Quite apart from the latest ruling from the Supreme Court exposing the ineffectiveness of this government, it brings to the fore the question of whether this county is a democracy, run by elected representatives, or one which is actually controlled by unelected lawyers. We are in the position that, whatever the people vote for in a general election, the courts can just overrule any attempt to implement the polices supported by the electorate. There is no point in parties putting forward a manifesto, which is then successful at the polls, if a small group of unelected functionaries can prevent its implementation.
The excuse resorted to is that international law and treaties limit what the government is permitted to enact, yet this runs contrary to the principle that parliament in this country is sovereign, and cannot be restricted by decisions taken by previous parliaments. In addition arrogant lawyers, working in the dubious field of international law, have declared certain treaties to be living documents. In other words, while we may have agreed to the initial treaty, it can then be amended without our agreement, and we are then supposedly to abide by whatever it then contains.
This extension of the powers of courts is unacceptable in a democracy, and, if our votes are to mean anything, the former must be prevented from acting in this manner, if necessary by withdrawing from any, and all of those treaties and agreements, which are responsible for this growing ability of the self interested legal profession to increase its own power at the expense of that of the people.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 17th November 2023
Despite opinion polls showing that the British public is firmly behind Suella Braverman concerning her comments, both on illegal immigration and pro Palestinian marches, the Prime minister has seen fit to remove her as Home Secretary.
This sacking is the last straw for anyone who believes in this country, and its values. The Conservative party is now nothing more than a collection of Social Democrats, lacking courage to stand up for British people, and it will go down to a massive defeat at the next general election.
Kent Messenger - 16th November 2023
Clearly John Helm has swallowed anti Israeli propaganda whole. Those yelling their support for Hamas, many of whom are from the hard left, and organisations which like to pretend that they are so progressive, are in fact not only applauding the murder of babies, but are aligning themselves with an organisation which is racist, sexist and homophobic, and whose leaders have frequently rejected offers of peace, and the creation of a separate Palestinian state, so intent are they on killing Jewish people. Indeed their founding charter calls for the annihilation of Jews.
How many more provocations are decent people to endure before our political class takes firm action. Quite apart from Hamas supporters parading in our streets we now find tube trains invaded, and that travellers must put up with propaganda being shouted into their faces, while our cultural icons, and values are treated with contempt.
The corruption of our education system by the virtue signalling left has convinced youngsters that Israel is some sort of totalitarian state, intent on oppressing non Jews, when the truth is that twenty per cent of the population is Arab, nearly all of whom are Muslims, and that many of the latter hold senior positions in the government and supreme court. Israel is the only true democracy in the Middle East, yet the ignoramuses who demand its destruction prefer the despotic regimes which surround it.
The Conservatives wring their hands, but do nothing effective to stop these outrages taking place in our cities, while the parties of opposition are ridden with those whose anti semitism is becoming more evident every day. It is a disgrace, and blackens the reputation of the UK among those who still believe in freedom.
Daily Express - 14th November 2023
The sacking of Suella Braverman is the last straw for anyone who believes in this country, and its values. The Conservative party is now nothing more than a collection of Social Democrats, lacking courage to stand up for British people, and it will go down to a massive defeat at the next general election.
Kent Messenger - 9th November 2023
John Cooper is of course correct in mourning civilian deaths in the Middle East, but this will always be a feature of war, and unless a nation is prepared to just lay down in front of those who would destroy it, always will be. Millions of innocents died in the Second World War, but would humanity be better off if the Nazis had not been forcibly opposed, and allowed to triumph? Pacifism requires good people taking no action in the face of rampant evil, and itself results in the deaths of millions.
However demands for a ceasefire in Gaza owe more to hatred of Israel, than to any concern for civilians. The BBC has reported that members of its staff were in tears, and suffering distress, over the coverage of the Middle East war by the organisation. However, this was not because, as anybody with a brain knows, the BBC is totally biased against Israel, but ludicrously that it is supposedly anti Palestinian.
That this should be the case shows just how far our national broadcaster has fallen since the days when it practised a genuine neutrality. Clearly the staff involved are not fit to be employed by what claims to be an unbiased commentator, yet the likelihood is that they will receive support, rather than condemnation from senior management. The BBC has become nothing but a propagandist for anti Western causes, and requires root and branch reform.
It is a disgrace that, while this organisation aligns itself with demonstrators who chant about killing every Jew, the ordinary taxpayer is obliged by law to pay a fee which enables anti Jewish propaganda to continue to be broadcast. If the BBC were forced to fund itself, in the same way commercial companies must, then it would soon find that aping the views only of the Corbynites of Islington would not be sufficient.
Daily Mail - 6th November 2023
The issue of AI should be considered in a much wider context than in being just a development in the computer revolution. Organic evolution has come to an end, as humanity will not allow a different living species to take our place, but perhaps the baton is being passed to electronic intelligences, who will evolve beyond our understanding.
We could only stop this if every nation renounced AI, but of course they will not.
Kent Messenger - 2nd November 2023
Those of us who remember the 1960s will recall the furore in 1968 when student protests looked set to overturn established governments, although in the end nothing came of it. However we, particularly in the UK and the USA, now face a much greater menace emanating from our so called institutions of higher education, which threatens our democracies.
In both countries student bodies are trying to limit free speech with the imposition of allowing such nonsenses as safe spaces, trigger warnings and no platforming to limit debate, deny the opportunity for those who do not subscribe the narrow set of left liberal, and often Marxist, opinions held by the high priests of political correctness to present their views, and attempt to change to the names of colleges, and agree to the removal of statues, linked to those historical personalities of university life who had connections to matters of which they disapprove. To these affronts to liberty they are now adding an increasingly woke ideology, and a mindless support of the thugs of Hamas, revealing an anti semitism which one would have thought knowledge of the horrors of the holocaust would have eliminated.
Of course these youngsters have been brainwashed in schools to believe in all this rubbish, but much of the blame for its spread much be attributed to the lecturers, and university bureaucrats, who do not merely tolerate their views, but actually encourage them. Oxford academics have debated a motion calling for "intifada until victory", while Cambridge is seeking to follow Dr Goebbels in banning books. In America many alumni from Ivy League colleges are withdrawing financial support, due to the insanity now prevailing in their alma maters.
It is time for a root and branch reform of higher education. There should be a ruthless pruning of useless degree courses, the jumped up polytechnics who call themselves universities should be returned to the task of providing technical education under their old names, entry requirements made much more onerous, woke staff sacked, and students brought to heel. These privileged individuals should not be allowed to dictate the terms upon which they are educated. Student unions should be abolished, while any attacks on free speech should result in immediate expulsion.
Of course none of this will happen as the establishment is dominated by the products of these institutions, and will not allow any sort of common-sense to be applied. The products of this corrupt system, particularly from Oxbridge, will proceed to join the political and bureaucratic elites, and then further undermine our democracy.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 27th October 2023
The recent demonstrations on our street in support of Hamas make clear how inopportune is the defence by Steve Barrass of the principle of multiculturalism. To be clear this has nothing to do with race, or the colour of one's skin, which are irrelevant, but everything to do with the cultural mores habitual within a community.
Over decades the political class has allowed, even encouraged, immigration from the Middle East, and the sub continent, which has resulted in substantial communities where the normally accepted parameters of social order differ hugely from those of the host community. Although not supported by all involved, many regard women as second class citizens, treat those of a different sexual orientation with hostility, have an antipathy to other groups, particularly those of the Jewish faith, and are out of sympathy with the democratic policies accepted by the majority of the population. Unfortunately some also react to anything they choose to regard as critical of their beliefs with a violence which cannot be tolerated within a democratic society.
None of this can be conducive to happiness within either the minority group, or the populace as a whole, and, contrary to the opinion expressed by Mr Barrass, indicates that the Home Secretary is correct, and that multiculturalism has not been a success.
Kent Messenger - 26th October 2023
In their reaction to the attack by Hamas terrorists on Israel the hypocrisy of the liberal left, and their supporters in the media, particularly the BBC, has been exposed, making clear their real nature, and the agenda that they follow.
Despite the determination by the government that the perpetrators of this foul assault on a democratic nation are terrorists the BBC has refused to refer to them as such, insisting that they are soldiers. While innocent civilians in Israel were reeling from seeing women raped, and children butchered in a sadistic and bestial manner, the talking heads of the BBC were far more focused on decrying any proposed military response from Israel, badgering spokespeople for the latter about how they were going to eliminate Hamas without causing casualties to Palestinians in Gaza. When severe damage to a hospital was reported the BBC, despite evidence to the contrary, just accepted the assertion by Hamas that Israel was to blame.
The usual far left suspects, such as "Stop the War" who, while claiming that they are against war in principle, actually only ever protest in favour of the enemies of the democratic West, becoming animated beyond measure when the opportunity exists to attack actions taken by Israel, but ignore countess other conflicts where they cannot identify one of the participants as being specifically pro Western. As far as the usual naive, so called celebrities, who sign petitions calling for a ceasefire are concerned, does it not occur to them that such a reaction would allow violent terrorists to inflict mayhem on the innocent, but then to hide behind a demand that no effective action should be taken in response.
These petitioners are just examples of, to use a phrase attributed to Lenin, useful idiots, but the real cause of the outcry from the Left that nothing should be done to destroy Hamas is that it is a manifestation of the oldest hatred of all, anti semitism. The vociferous, virtue signalling propagandists try to conceal their real motive behind concern for Palestinians, but are merely voicing the irrational ideology which has, over centuries, demonised Jewish people, despite the latter being so often the victims, not the cause of social problems.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 13th October 2023
Although often wrongly attributed to Voltaire the quote "I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." sums up the philosophy underpinning free speech, yet the intentions of the political elite, whose illiberal mindset now dominates this country, are laid bare by the recent campaign to close down GB News. This has nothing to do with the storm in a teacup engendered by comments made by Laurence Fox, but is evidence of a much darker agenda, seeking to suppress free speech and democracy itself.
While the press is not of one mind on the major issues facing this country the broadcast media is totally biased on the side of those propagandists who are undermining society in pursuit of the goals of the far left. The presence of GB News is of course an affront to those who wish to close down debate, and only admit one view to be heard. They try to hide under the usual cloak of virtue signalling, but are in fact as much enemies of our society as those such as the Marxists have always been.
That the BBC should feel itself virtuous enough to accuse others of unacceptable behaviour is risible, when one considers the scandal of Jimmy Savile, and the manner in which the hurtful mocking of Andrew Sachs was permitted without any action being taken. Their hypocrisy in particular is nauseating as their presenters accuse GB News of bias. This from the station with its egregious prejudice against Brexit, and which insists that the theory of global warming is to be unchallenged, plus the obvious bigotry of so many of its public voices, who are allowed to inflict their personal views on the rest of us, is a disgrace from an organisation which is supposed to be impartial. It has just been forced to apologise for a deplorable edition of Newsnight, which encouraged attacks on GB News by some of those attempting to close it down..
The rag tag groups of activists supporting such blatant censorship by the establishment failed in their attempts to prevent advertisers using the channel, and are now going further in their efforts to silence any voices opposed to the agenda of the so called liberal left. If GB News were to be closed down it would be a massive triumph for those who are determined to destroy our democratic society in the name of agendas which are supported by only a small minority of vociferous activists.
Kent Messenger - 12th October 2023
The intentions of the political elite, whose illiberal mindset now dominates this country, are laid bare by the recent campaign to close down GB News. The rag tag groups of activists supporting such blatant censorship by the establishment failed in their attempts to prevent advertisers using the channel, and are now going further in their efforts to silence any voices opposed to the agenda of the so called liberal left. This has nothing to do with the storm in a teacup engendered by comments made by Laurence Fox, but is evidence of a much darker agenda, seeking to suppress free speech and democracy itself.
While the press is not of one mind on the major issues facing this country the broadcast media is totally biased on the side of those propagandists who are undermining society in pursuit of the goals of the far left. The presence of GB News is of course an affront to those who wish to close down debate, and only admit one view to be heard. They try to hide under the usual cloak of virtue signalling, but are in fact as much enemies of our society as those such as the Marxists have always been.
The hypocrisy of the BBC in particular is nauseating as their presenters accuse GB News of bias. This from the station with its egregious prejudice against Brexit, and which insists that the theory of global warming is to be unchallenged, plus the obvious bigotry of so many of its public voices, who are allowed to inflict their personal views on the rest of us, is a disgrace from an organisation which is supposed to be impartial. It has just been forced to apologise for a deplorable edition of Newsnight, which encouraged attacks on GB News by some of those attempting to close it down.
That the BBC should feel itself virtuous enough to accuse others of unacceptable behaviour is risible, when one considers the scandal of Jimmy Savile, and the manner in which the hurtful mocking of Andrew Sachs was permitted without any action being taken.
Although often wrongly attributed to Voltaire the quote "I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." sums up the philosophy underpinning free speech. If GB News were to be closed down it would be a massive triumph for those who are determined to destroy our democratic society in the name of agendas which are supported by only a small minority of vociferous activists.
Kent Messenger - 5th October 2023
It is reported that a number of civil servants have joined many like minded activists in describing anyone who opposes the implementation of trans ideology as being Nazis. Clearly such bigots are lacking in any historical knowledge, as the Nazis were possibly the worst mass murderers in history, at least since the attempted genocide of the Gauls by Julius Caesar during the Gallic wars, while to oppose the medication, plus often irreversible surgery, of children, many of whom are just going through the normal angst of adolescence is to be applauded, not condemned.
This kind of campaign by self righteous ignoramuses is dominating public discourse, as small minorities of entitled militants are trying to force their usually ill informed opinions on the majority. The environmental extremists who think it acceptable to block roads, and damage infrastructure in pursuit of the nonsense of net zero, make life difficult for the ordinary workers, while they attempt to stop the use of cars which are essential to everyday life, and demonise the means by which we keep warm in our homes. The virtue signalling groups who appear at places like Dover to support illegal immigration via small boats have, in their middle class arrogance, no concern for the fact that the country lacks, inter alia, doctors, housing, and working class jobs, and therefore cannot accept the influx of unlimited numbers of those with no connection to this country. The pathetic band of Remainers, who still refuse to accept the democratic wish of the British people to leave the EU, have mutated into Rejoiners, apparently unaware that the political culture of Europe is now moving steadily towards the far right, with the National Front in France, and the AFD in Germany looking likely to join the Italians Right in electoral success. It may be that in not too long a time the EU will in fact be dominated by those most Remainers would consider fascists.
Just recently another group of self absorbed blockheads have taken their anti monarchical campaign into Buckingham Palace. Those who claim to be republicans clearly do not understand that constitutional monarchy has proved to be one of the most successful systems of government yet devised, as separating the symbolic, and neutral, head of state from the elected executive is a major safeguard for democracy. This is evidenced by the manner in which King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy was able to dismiss the fascist leader Mussolini in 1943, and that King Juan Carlos I of Spain stopped a coup by army officers in 1981.
I suspect that those on the Left who claim to want an elected head of state would not be happy were they to be faced with a President Margaret Thatcher, while conservatives would not have welcomed a President Tony Blair. A genuine neutral figure, arrived at by hereditary means, and possessing only symbolic power, is by the far the best method, but of course the obsessives who like to shout their views from the roof tops are too slow witted to realise this.
Nearly 900 years ago Saint Bernard of Clairvaux said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and that is where activists are leading us. It is certainly time for the silent majority to speak up, and oppose all these vociferous dimwits, rather than merely tolerating them with a sigh.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 29th September 2023
As once again we hear of a massive increase in the cost of HS2, accompanied by a cancellation, or delay of parts of the routes, we are again confronted by the failure of modern Britain to accomplish almost anything, but instead must watch as our roads crumble, large sections of our built infrastructure is revealed to be in danger of collapse, and even more of our manufacturing base is transferred abroad. Together with our allies the previous generation planned and implemented the invasion to liberate Europe in a short period of time, but we can't even replace an underground escalator in less than two years.
What a contrast to those who created the industrial revolution, and to our Victorian ancestors, who between them built a great deal of the modern world, and on whose engineering accomplishments we often still rely. In those days this country had a 'Can do' approach, in contrast to today's 'Can't do' , or worse 'Can't be bothered'. When Napoleon tried to undermine us with his Continental system he failed because European nations depended so much on British products, a strength now wielded by China. Those nations such as Singapore and South Korea have inherited the mantle we once wore, enabling their people to enjoy a rising standard of living while we stagnate.
When I was born we still were one of the leading nations in the aircraft industry, and in car making, and even as late as 1971 we launched Prospero, our first and only Earth satellite, with a British Black Arrow missile from the rocket-testing facility at Woomera, Australia. It is still up there. We made our own trains, ships and buses and powered everything from our own resources. Now if faced with another crisis like 1939 we would go down before enemies who were not so foolish as to outsource the vital industrial strength required to win a war.
The blame for this rests on a political class which allowed it to happen, businesses whose only concern is profit, whatever the danger to the nation, and those militant workers who helped undermine such industries as car manufacturing. As for the future, it has been said in other contexts that in the affairs of nations it is never too late, it is just that the cost keeps going up. Are we really to believe that France and Italy are capable of building ocean liners for Cunard, while British shipyards, which produced those such as the QE2 cannot, or that British workers are somehow inferior to those in far eastern countries?
Whether we can yet turn things around depends on whether the old spirit which once animated our society still exists in this country.
Kent Messenger - 28th September 2023
Ralph A Tebbutt accuses me of drawing distorted conclusions from history, but in reality he seems to know very little of the latter.
He praises socialism, and indeed, in the 1950s and 1960s I supported the Labour party, as it was recognisably in the line of those who had fought for the working class, of which my family was a member. However I am sure that those leaders such as Attlee, Gaitskill, and Wilson, would not acknowledge the party it has become in the past forty years.
It once stood for the ordinary worker, while at the same time being realistic about the world, patriotically supporting strong defences, and rejecting wholeheartedly the idea of subsuming this nation into some supranational entity such as that the EU. Attlee and Ernest Bevin worked together on the decision to produce a British atomic bomb despite intense opposition from pro-Soviet elements of the Labour Party, groups that Bevin detested. The latter was a true socialist, representing ordinary people, never being seduced by the middle class concerns which now dominate the party. Despite leaving school by the age of eleven he was one of the most effective ministers we have ever had, praised by Churchill as one who would have made a great Labour Prime Minister. He rejected out of hand any involvement with the European project. The darling of the Labour left Aneurin Bevan rejected the appeasers of CND as, speaking at the 1957 Labour Party conference, he decried unilateral nuclear disarmament, saying "It would send a British Foreign Secretary naked into the conference-chamber".
Today the party is run by those who put, inter alia, sexual and racial issues far above the desire to actually help the working class, having been taken over by metropolitan middle class representatives who regard the concerns of those in the old industrial areas as of little importance. Their deranged support for net zero policies, which would hit the working class the hardest, are a case in point. Indeed, if the Rishi Sunak actually sticks to his guns for once, and rolls back the green tide, it could be an issue which keeps the Labour party out of power.
This corruption of socialism happened in many countries, and a great deal of the blame can be attributed to Lenin, who, born into the upper middle class, and arrogantly seeking personal power, distorted the policies which would have given the people a better life, promoting the kind of ideological approach which led to seventy five years of totalitarian dictatorship. Socialist governments based on that model are always a disaster for the people. The manner in which socialism has been practised abroad has not led to the universal freedom that Mr Tebbutt desires, but to many despotic regimes, which are also economically incompetent.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 22nd September 2023
The world appears to be gripped by the greatest delusion since the idiocy of the Dutch tulip mania of the 1630s, and the South Sea Bubble of the 1720s, the effects of which were at least confined to one country. The propaganda surrounding the called climate crisis is causing immense damage to the economies of many advanced nations, in particular our own, yet the ordinary citizens are kept in the dark about the dubious nature of what environmental extremists claim, and are facing enormous changes in their life styles in order to counter what is not the Armageddon scenario being predicted.
In fact there are many reputable scientists who characterise climate change as a problem that should be addressed, but calmly, and over a sensible time scale, not in the deranged manner advocated by the Greens, and who point out that there are beneficial results for the natural world, as well as adverse ones, such as a large increase in plant life. However, in the hysterical world of social media, and with the cowardly refusal of politicians to oppose those shouting "Fire", anyone who dares to offer an opinion contrary to that of the vociferous alarmists is cancelled, and treated as some sort of pariah.
There are undoubtedly major problems affecting the planet, such as the overuse of plastics, but these are being addressed, and there are many long term solutions to excessive use of fossil fuels which sensible people can accept, but which do not require them to live in unheated homes, or give up cars, and foreign holidays.
Unfortunately those who are now making a career from supposedly fighting climate change are not disposed to accept any real solutions, such as much greater use of nuclear power, or a massive exploitation of tidal power, but instead prefer to either enjoy research grants to produce even more apocalyptic predictions, or just think that they are being virtuous in obstructing normal life. Most of the latter are ignorant of real science, and enjoy shouting the odds, and presenting themselves as examples to be followed.
It is time for the electorate to call a halt to the entire net zero madness, else they will be enduring an immense reduction in the living standards, all to no purpose, in particular in the UK, which only produces one per cent of global CO2 emissions. Perhaps these people would be better employed blocking traffic in Tiananmen Square, as China produces a third of the world's greenhouse gases. However, I doubt very much that their virtue signalling would extent to actually risking the sort of stern response that would inevitably result.
Kent Messenger - 21st September 2023
As now happens with monotonous regularity the traditional music on Last Night of the Proms is attacked by the liberal left as being unacceptable because of its unashamedly loyal sentiments, while some those attending reject the Union Jack in favour of the circle of twelve stars.
While pride in their own culture, and history, expressed by peoples from around the world is rightly praised, any similar manifestation of patriotic feeling in Britain is condemned by those who hate their own country, and always seek to deride its achievements, while transferring their emotional allegiance to some other nation, or supranational entity. George Orwell identified this in his comments about those of his own time when he said "In intention, at any rate, the English intelligentsia are Europeanised. They take their cookery from Paris and their opinions from Moscow. In the general patriotism of the country they form a sort of island of dissident thought". Then it was the uncritical support given to Stalin's merciless dictatorship in the Soviet Union, while today it is largely hero worship of the EU. As it is an emotional reaction they cannot be persuaded by rational debate, no matter how many facts point to the utter failures of the object of their love.
The elites in this country have a horror of being identified in anyway with the views of those they regard as the hoi polloi, and, as they know that the average person is quietly patriotic, they determine that they will take an adverse view. To quote Orwell again "In left-wing circles it is always felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman and that it is a duty to snigger at every English institution, from horse racing to suet puddings. It is a strange fact, but it is unquestionably true that almost any English intellectual would feel more ashamed of standing to attention during 'God save the King' than of stealing from a poor box".
Those waving the EU flag in the Royal Albert Hall, are in fact displaying its corporate logo as, despite denying it has any ambition to become a nation state, it is busy making itself into a United States of Europe with all the trappings of a nation, including a flag and parliament. However what is being waved is a corporate logo, and technically, anyone flying it from a building requires planning permission to do so, as it is not a national flag. So all those, waving their blue flags, were waving corporate logos, and may as well be waving them with the McDonald's' fast food sign on them!
To use the modern parlance, I self identify as a member of the patriotic hoi polloi, and I am sure that the vast majority of Britons agree with me in giving their allegiance to our nation, as represented by the Union Jack, not bowing to the symbol of the Brussels bureaucratic dictatorship.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 15th September 2023
It is increasingly obvious that the Conservative party made a serious mistake in electing Rishi Sunak as leader, as he is excellent at announcements, aspirations and intentions, but spectacularly useless at implementation. He promises policy changes, which are then either delayed to some unspecified time in the future, or cancelled altogether, apparently in the belief that the public are fooled by this into thinking that the government is actually addressing the myriad challenges which face the country.
It is doubly regrettable that, in electing this man, the party rejected a far more effective candidate in the form of Suella Braverman. She is principled, committed and courageous, not least in her determined efforts to overcome the ideologues infesting the Home Office, who stand in her way as she tries to end illegal immigration, and defeat those in the police force who put persecuting what they see as thoughtcrime above actual policing.
She would be a far more effective PM than most of those vying for the position, and is in the mould of Margaret Thatcher, unlike that other female leader Theresa May, a weak, ineffectual premier, whose short term in office nevertheless created a number of major problems which haunt us today.
Suella is hated by the Left, as they believe that they own the votes of anyone who is non white, and cannot understand how a member of an ethnic minority should be a Conservative. Indeed the Labour MP Dawn Butler, herself the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, said in an interview that "So you can't really have a white home secretary saying the sort of things that Suella's saying and get away with it that easily, I don't think. So it's very strategic of the government to place people with those kind of views and meaning in those positions.", thus implying that Suella owes her position to her race, not her ability.
When Sunak has led the Conservatives to a well earned defeat, and no doubt gone off to the Lords, the party will, as so often, ignore the best candidates in favour of a 'safe pair of hands', ignoring those of real talent such as the current Home Secretary.
Kent Messenger - 14th September 2023
The government claims that it is attempting to put an end to the situation where a large number of its employees are insisting on working from home, a matter which has resulted in the level of service being provided to the public being severely adversely affected.
That this should present a problem is yet another illustration of the weakness of the current administration, as the answer is obvious, and lies completely within its power to solve. All those on the government payroll should be instructed to return to work within a week, or be dismissed, unless they have a genuine health reason for not be able to do so. I know that this would have been my fate, had I arrogantly refused to attend the office during my over forty two years of employment.
Those who claim that the absence of large numbers of workers is not undermining the organisations involved are talking rubbish, as anyone who attempts to obtain assistance from major government departments can attest. Even if one succeeds in contacting a real human being it is frequently the case that they cannot deal with the matter, as they do not have access to the necessary documents etc.
The same sanction is available to other public sector employers such as local authorities, while, although private companies are not controlled by the state, it is obvious that much stricter measures could be used by the government to ensure that companies with customer service departments which fail to meet reasonable levels of effectiveness would be subject to sanctions.
That there should be any difficulty in resolving this matter merely proves the uselessness of the current political elite.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 8th September 2023
The absurd furore surrounding the infamous kiss bestowed by football official Luis Rubiales on female player Jenni Hermoso illustrates the lack of proportion shown by the media on so many issues, as what amounts to a somewhat insensitive display of Spanish machismo is hardly an example of massive oppression. It was certainly impolite, but nothing more, and certainly not a sexual assault.
If one is genuinely concerned with the rights of women then the attacks on the latter by the transgender lobby, who are seeking to impose their mantra of "Men are Women" by reversing so many of the hard won gains made by feminists over a century, are something which should be stopped, yet fashionable opinion is supportive of these extremists.
Far worse is the oppression of women in Afghanistan. They have been forbidden the opportunity to work, for an education, for even the right to venture outside their homes without a male escort. Only recently they have been banned from public parks, and those girls who have managed to gain admission to universities outside the country have now been prevented from doing so.
There is no realistic prospect that this medieval oppression of half the population will end, as any Western intervention would be decried by the left liberals as something akin to imperialism, so there is nothing to stop the Taliban continuing on this path for decades.
Clearly the ridiculously excessive outrage expressed about Senor Rubiales should be regarded in the light of the very real abuse endured by many women in the Third World, whose grievances are in a totally different league. In case anyone thinks that I disrespect women I should point out that, being British, I fear that I probably give offence to female French friends whom I try to greet with a handshake, in a usually vain effort to avoid the famous 'La bise', in which even Frenchmen sometimes indulge!
Kent Messenger - 7th September 2023
Many people believe that the activists associated with such causes as net zero emissions, and gender transition, are benevolent, seeking to improve the quality of life. However the truth is that they represent a real danger to freedom of speech, and democracy, and must be resisted, something none of the main political parties appear willing to do.
For centuries political thought in the West has been largely based upon the Enlightenment, the late seventeenth century philosophical, intellectual and cultural movement which, stressed reason, logic, criticism, and freedom of thought over dogma, blind faith, and superstition. It was in sharp contrast to the age of the Puritans, who, driven by religious belief, were totally dogmatic, humourless, judgemental, and fully prepared to persecute anyone who dared to question their beliefs.
Now we face vociferous groups which, while lacking religious motivations, are distorting society, particularly in the UK and USA, in a way that the witch finders of the mid seventeenth century would applaud. They admit of no possibility that they might be wrong, close down debate, and treat any opponents as heretics, to be punished by the loss of employment, reputation or worse. Aided by the cesspit of social media, which unjustly magnifies the extent to which their opinions are supported by ordinary citizens, they have succeeded in imposing their views on large swathes of the populace, using accusations of racism, homophobia, climate change denial etc., to silence those who question, inter alia, whether a country producing only one percent of global carbon emissions should sacrifice its way of life in pursuit of a dubious theory, dare to oppose the use of irreversible medical procedures on children probably only just going through the usual confusions arising from the process of growing up, or who choose not to indulge the Thought Police seeking to limit their right to free speech.
In many fields the malign influence of HR departments is oppressing employees, forcing them to conform to the prejudices of the politically correct, who like Torquemada, the Spanish Grand inquisitor of the 15th Century, or Matthew Hopkins, English Witchfinder General of the 17th, seek out and punish all those whom it believes are guilty of thoughtcrime, while schools are being obliged to teach climate alarmism as fact, when it is quite valid to hold a different view as to its truth. Cowardly public figures, particularly among the acting profession, attack those such as J K Rowling, who will not submit to the dictatorship of the current zeitgeist, instead choosing to defend the rights of women.
If we do not stand up to these authoritarians then we shall descend into a new dark age, where speech, and even thought, will be subject to policing by these acolytes of the modern religion of woke.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 1st September 2023
Too many people in the UK are like children in a tree house, squabbling over toys, while a flood is about to sweep the tree, the toys, and them, into oblivion. While idiots on social media argue over inconsequential rubbish, and activists for various causes continue their monomaniacal campaigns, inspired by a desire to signal how virtuous they are, we face a growing threat in the real world, as we are in as great a danger as we were in the thirties.
Our defence is predicated on the effectiveness of NATO, and American military might. However, as the Democrats in the US vanish to the far left, and the Republicans are baulking at spending money on the defence of others, there is a real danger that that nation may retreat into Fortress America, while, given the backsliding by many NATO members on aid to Ukraine, how much is it sensible to rely on promises that are based on one for all and all for one. The bell will begin to toll for NATO the day the Russian steamroller finally crushes the valiant Ukrainian people.
In the thirties we had an empire of hundreds of millions behind us, the largest Navy in the world, a valiant air force, and an industrial base with the potential to out perform Nazi Germany in military production. The army, though smaller than the continental powers, was nevertheless significant.
Now we have potentially the smallest Army since the Napoleonic Wars, the Navy has been reduced to no much more than a flotilla, and the air force has only about 130 front line fighters, with approximately 150 pilots trained to fly them. The new aircraft carriers are good, but they need a screen of destroyers if they are to operate effectively, something they do not have. The air force needs an enormous increase in numbers, if it were to be able to face an onslaught from Russian forces.
We do have the necessary nuclear deterrent, protecting use from naked nuclear blackmail. However we cannot use strategic weapons on a tactical battlefield without risking annihilation, so their first use is ruled out.
Perhaps the greatest danger is that, while in 1939 we had an industrial base that could be converted to war production, powered by our own resources, now we have outsourced so much in the move to becoming a supplier of services, while shamefully neglecting domestic energy supplies. We cannot counter a Russian fleet with pieces of paper, and HR policies, while power from offshore windmills would be among the first targets for the Russians.
We might face the totalitarians of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, without the help of the US, while the rest of NATO, except France, would being easily overwhelmed, leaving us once again relying on the Channel to save us.
Those on the left who oppose spending on defence should wake up to the fact that their concerns are of no interest to our enemies, who indeed oppose them, while the politicians must return to the principle that defence of the realm is their first priority, and change policies, on energy, industrial capacity, and defence accordingly, before it is too late.
Kent Messenger - 31st August 2023
The latest horrific failure in the NHS brings into sharp focus something which many of us have been pointing out for years, that the main cause of its problems is bureaucracy draining the strength from the organisation like a giant succubus. These so called managers obfuscate all errors made on their watch, belong to a merry go round circle of overpaid parasites, and are granted unearned bonuses, while patients are treated as nuisances to be ignored. They are supported by that non profession HR, with its ridiculous jargon of synergies and lacunas, producing endless worthless policies, that do no more than waste time and resources, based on their mantra of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. No normal person regards themselves as superior to others by virtue of cosmetic differences, like skin colour, yet these woke fanatics cause division and conflict by implementing their own prejudices against normal, decent people.
Parkinson's law was first published in 1955, observing that public administration, bureaucracy and officialdom expands to fill its allotted time span, regardless of the amount of work to be done. This was attributed mainly to two factors: that officials want subordinates, not rivals, and that officials make work for each other. As he pointed out, and is even more true today, the Foreign Office had fewer officials when Britain ruled a quarter of humanity, than it does when the Empire has gone, while the Admiralty retains large numbers of bureaucrats at a time when the Royal Navy has shrunk from being by far the largest in the world to a pale shadow of its former self.
Extra funding for the NHS just vanishes into the bottomless pit of the bureaucracy, spent on even more rooms for pointless meetings, constantly growing numbers of officials who spend their time communicating with each other, and paying those at the top ridiculously large amounts, while failing to effectively manage anything. We now learn that in the Lucy Letby case managers threatened clinical staff concerned about her actions, and made them apologise to the murderess, rather than investigate properly, yet only rarely is anyone held accountable for such failures.
If the NHS is to be rescued then 95% of these managers should be sacked, HR should be totally abolished, and not incidentally just within the health service, and all policies, within and outside the NHS, based on the absurd woke ideology should be scrapped. Clinicians should be listened to, whistleblowers supported, not persecuted, and patients' complaints heeded. However, given the utter uselessness of the political elite, no doubt all that will happen is that yet more taxpayers money will be poured in, all to no avail.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 25th August 2023
Edward Baker's attack on Winston Churchill uses the same old canards repeated by those who wish to denigrate the greatest of all Britons. At the time of the famine in Bengal Churchill knew that sufficient supplies of grain were already available, but it proved to be the distribution which failed, due to corruption within the provincial, and largely Indian run government, plus hoarding by speculators. In fact it was Churchill who appointed Lord Wavell as Viceroy , whose use of the Army finally alleviated the crisis. In addition, Churchill was also faced with the need to utilise all available shipping for the war effort, as the seaborne invasions of Sicily, Italy and Normandy were in dire need of ships if Nazi Germany was to be defeated.
As far as partition is concerned the historic hatreds between Hindu and Muslim, plus the demand of the latter for Pakistan, meant that the accompanying massacres were inevitable, whatever the British tried to do, while of course the ultimate responsibility lay with Attlee's Labour government, not Churchill, who was leader of the opposition at the time.
Those historians who try to rewrite the story of appeasement ignore the truth that it was primarily Churchill, among the major political figures of the time, who warned of the danger from Hitler, and without him, we would have gone down to defeat, as no agreement could last, given the megalomania of Hitler.
To denigrate Britain's contribution to the war effort is deplorable: thousands died in the Western desert, the jungles of Burma, on the Normandy beaches, and at Arnhem, while we had more men in contact with German forces until July 1944 than did the USA; the Navy was the major contributor to the European sea battles, and amphibious assaults; thousands of RAF personnel died in the Battle of Britain, and in the campaign to undermine Germany's war production. Far from being useless Mountbatten appointed Slim to lead the 14th Army, whose leadership inspired the 14th Army, as they turned the tide on the Japanese.
My parents endured nearly six years of war in London, including losing the house to a bomb in the Blitz, and they regarded Churchill as the saviour of the nation. I for one know that, had we lost the war, I and my generation would not exist, given the German plans for the British population, so we owe our lives to Churchill. It is contemptible that some wish to sully his memory, and that of the great generation which defeated the fascists.
Kent Messenger - 24th August 2023
The absurd, and insulting, claim by Keith Nevois of the Liberal Democrats, that those opposed to illegal immigration are motivated by hysteria and hate proves that it is time that honesty and common sense was applied to the issue of that taking place via small boats crossing the Channel.
The Left constantly claims that those taking this route are impoverished, and desperate, people fleeing persecution in their own countries, and that to oppose its continuation is wrong. However the fact is that, whatever impelled their departure from their homes, those on the boats are fleeing France, a beautiful, prosperous, and democratic first world nation, which is based on the motto of "Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite", and which is a member of the EU, an organisation so beloved by Liberal Democrats. It is not intent on oppressing them, or depriving them of the means to live. As far as the financial issue is concerned the immigrants are able to pay traffickers thousands of pounds for their places.
Obviously they are intent on getting to the UK because they have been convinced that its streets are paved with gold, and it is also clear that boatloads of young, single men, are economic migrants, not political refugees. Those who are genuinely in fear for their lives could apply through legal channels, joining the many who do, and would almost certainly be granted permission to come. By taking to the boats they are like those who walk to the front of bus queues, expecting to be allowed to take precedence over those waiting, while often leaving their families at home to fend for themselves.
The deaths at sea are tragedies, but the responsibility lies with the traffickers. It seems unlikely that the British and French security services cannot infiltrate these organisers, making possible their arrest and conviction on charges including murder.
As far as the government is concerned it has proved unbelievably incompetent in taking action to close down the illegal crossings. It should be made clear that anyone arriving in the UK in this way would be taken to purpose built barracks, of the sort I slept in years ago on a RAF base, and which compare to the youth hostels found across Europe in the 1960s. They would be provided with sleeping accommodation, sufficient food, medical care, and education for any children involved, but all who were economic migrants would be permanently denied entry to the country, returning to their own being the only option.
By all means let us help the countries involved through foreign aid, but so called liberals refuse to accept any limit on the numbers to be allowed entry to the UK, despite there being hundreds of millions from the third world who wish to move to developed nations. If nothing is done beyond the wringing of hands then eventually voters, who are aware that our health system lacks sufficient doctors, the economy does not have enough jobs for unskilled workers, and the supply of houses is already insufficient, will reject politicians who refuse to deal with the matter, with unpredictable, but certainly radical, results.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 18th August 2023
I suggest that those of your correspondents who wax enthusiastic about proportional representation watch Borgen, the excellent Danish political drama. Their electoral system, including party lists, is shown to produce a plethora of parties, non capable of achieving a majority, whom must then negotiate with each other to arrive at a government. The result of this is that many policies supporters backed are jettisoned, while the parties in the final coalition endorse a number of those which their own members rejected.
Any system other than first past the post hands the power to actually make policy to politicians, while the people must watch on as their wishes are ignored by parties who often have more in common with each other than with those whose votes they received. At least the former system permits governments with strong mandates to take power, whereas other systems ensure that small centrist parties are always wagging the dog, forcing the dilution of policy with the threat of resignation from the coalition.
If one really wishes political policy to represent the ordinary voter then the Swiss have the best system, whereby major issues are decided by referenda, once a sufficient number of people have asked that one be held. Of course our political elite will never agree to this, having had their fingers burned by that of the June 2016 EU referendum. The arrogant cosy consensus at the heart of British politics privately regards the populace as the great unwashed, unfit to make the sort of decisions the former consider their province alone.
I suspect that, were the British people be given the opportunity of having such referenda, they would oppose the proposal to adopt net zero carbon emissions in the ridiculously short time frame suggested, demand that illegal immigration be stopped by firm action, insist that the woke be removed from positions they are using to limit free speech, and that the criminal justice system be based on making punishments fit the crime, replacing the pathetically weak treatment, of those battening on the law abiding, with deterrent sentences. I might be wrong about some, or all, opinion on these issues, but the politicians are too afraid that I am right to ever allow such an extension of democracy.
Kent Messenger - 17th August 2023
Obviously Pete Trow supports Nigel Farage because he recognises that the latter, unlike most politicians, says what he means and means what he says. Thirty years ago, I was a colleague of Nigel, as we and a small group of like minded allies, supported Dr Alan Sked to work to establish UKIP as a serious political party. We were, contrary to the assertions of Europhiles, motivated by a genuine belief that membership of the EU was bad for the UK on all levels, and a major threat to our democracy.
We were faced with a political establishment which, while each claiming to be presenting an alternative vision for the country, were actually agreed that EU membership was an immutable fact, supported by the British people. However, we believed that in reality the silent majority, once presented with the truth about the organisation, would reject its aims of forming a single European state, run by bureaucrats, not elected representatives, and we were right. Clearly creating a new party, capable of winning a general election, proved massively difficult, but we pressured the Conservatives into granting a referendum, which was then won by those who opposed following the path leading to the loss of our sovereignty. At no time were we concealing a malevolent agenda, as the Remainers asserted, but were straightforward and honest as to our beliefs.
Since June 2016 we have seen the losers of that vote do everything they could to frustrate the will of the people, and now we have a political class that seems determined to press on with the nonsense of net zero, based on a dubious theory of climate change, ignore the anti democratic activities of the woke, and to fail to find any way of dealing with illegal immigration. Mr Trow is correct that an honest man would be the best choice lead the fight to reverse all this, but unfortunately the tragedy is that to overthrow the cosy establishment consensus is the work of decades, not the one year we have left before the next general election.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 11th August 2023
The disgraceful treatment of Nigel Farage, and many others, by the arrogant supporters of woke lurking in senior levels of banks, and other organisations, quite apart from the very obvious threats to democracy, has also highlighted just how much these members of the magic circle of self selected elitists are paying each other, while treating the ordinary people with contempt.
The banks nearly crashed the economies of the West in 2008, and were only saved by taxpayers' money, yet now we learn that they consider it acceptable to pay CEOs over five million pounds per annum, often when these people seem to also hold other positions to which they allocate much of their time. No one can be worth that amount, particularly when they seem to regard enforcing woke opinions as more important than the primary function of their organisations to operate successfully in the financial sector, yet still they receive obscene bonuses.
Of course the arrogance of the middle class elites was most obvious during the Covid crisis, when the majority hid in their homes, while those they regard as working class serfs delivered their post and food supplies, kept the transport links running, sorted out problems with vital infrastructure, and generally prevented societal collapse. Many have done their best to frustrate the will of the people over Brexit, no doubt so that they can still use their Polish plumbers, and have the least inconvenience to themselves when jetting off to villas in Italy.
Unfortunately the Labour party is now dominated by such people, who, as they chat together in their metropolitan enclaves, no doubt regard the old supporters from the factories and industrial areas as beyond the Pale. The party of the working class is now one for crackpot wokists, and overpaid executives. That some of the shadow cabinet should actually defend the bankers who have been playing politics with peoples' accounts is utterly deplorable. The founders of Labour would reject the modern party with contempt.
Kent Messenger - 10th August 2023
The reaction of the liberal elite, and their supporters in the media, to the disgraceful treatment of Nigel Farage, has not only lifted the lid on a can of worms, but also made clear that they are lacking in intelligence. To target a man who not only has his own programme on a TV channel, but also writes regularly in major newspapers, and is enthusiastically supported by large numbers of people outside the metropolitan ivory tower in which they live, was certain to end in tears for them. What they have been doing to thousands of innocent bank customers in secret has now been exposed for all to see, and even this weak kneed government has been spurred into taking action. If these people had any sense they would realise that what is source for the goose is sauce for the gander, and that they are setting a precedent which could be followed by their opponents.
Of course it has long been clear that these acolytes of the religion of woke live in their own little world of groupthink, and have absolutely no idea about reality. They still support membership of that epitome of bureaucratic dictatorship, the European Union, refusing to recognize that it is fated to eventually collapse, as the normal instincts of populations for control of their own affairs reassert themselves, and patriotic desires to prevent their countries becoming provinces of a single European state drive the entire centre of political gravity in Europe to the right.
Their advocacy of net zero carbon emissions is increasingly being challenged by those who can see that to pauperise ourselves in the name of an unproven theory, is insane, particularly when the UK could reduce such emissions to zero, and yet not make any meaningful difference to the global total, given the activities of those such as China, Russia and India.
Perhaps the most deranged policy of all is that which insists that biological fact is fiction, so that they end up with an Orwellian slogan of "Men are Women", and sacrifice the rights so hard won by feminists to accommodate the demands of a tiny minority.
These people are arrogant, yet unfortunately currently possess the power to enforce their madness on an unwilling populace. We can only hope that the crusade initiated by Nigel will turn the tide, dethrone these elitists, and restore sanity to our affairs.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 4th August 2023
In the past the organisation for which I worked for over forty two years had a policy of appointing all staff at the most junior level, and promoting based on ability, and in house experience, resulting in those in senior positions being fully conversant with its aims, responsibilities, and procedures. However in my later years things changed, as they have in many businesses, in that people were recruited at any level, particularly the highest. Although not all such officers are unworthy, often the result is that, where incoming managers ignore the advice of the experienced staff, major problems arise, while, if they do listen to the latter, then one must question why it was deemed preferable not to promote from within.
This sort of attitude has had a detrimental effect on bodies such as the police, where youngsters from universities, with no practical experience, are given accelerated promotions, while those who have actually learnt their trade in the real world are ignored. This kind of system is now everywhere, most egregiously in the upper echelons of major businesses, and public services. It is absurd to believe that individuals, because of some supposed great managerial ability, can merrily move around, running totally disparate organisations, without any knowledge of the latter, yet this happens all the time.
One of the most atrocious results of these policies is that life long employees are frequently excluded from involvement in major decisions, so that, for example, railwaymen, with decades of experience in the industry, are deliberately ignored by these fly by night members of the privileged group of purported leaders. Of course, the validity of this objection assumes that those charged with running organisations have not changed their priorities to supporting a woke ideology, as has happened with the banks, where many long serving staff have abandoned corporate aims in favour of fashionable nonsense, although thankfully some of the latter are now being removed.
The ridiculous idea that, as has happened, an individual may move from running a media outlet, or travel firm, to organising a water company, or some such utility, is one of the reasons so many organisations perform so badly. As politicians think that they are also qualified in this way, is it any surprise that the country is being failed by government.
Kent Messenger - 3rd August 2023
It is a matter of concern that youngsters are being reported as suffering from depression, and even in some cases feeling suicidal, because of the alarmist propaganda concerning climate change with which they are bombarded, both at school, and by the media.
From biblical times those who warned of the end of the world have always been with us, in the past based on religion, including those cults who convinced their followers to commit mass suicide, even as recently as 1997, when dozens of followers of Heaven's Gate died in a mass suicide in Rancho Santa Fe, California, while the years of the Cold War also caused extreme reactions. One awful account from 1957 concerned parents who murdered their three children, and then killed themselves, in order to protect their offspring from dying in a nuclear war. If this couple had not allowed themselves to be panicked by the nonsense peddled by appeasers such as CND their children might still be alive, and now of pensionable age. By standing firm, and not listening to the Jeremiahs predicting destruction, the confrontation with the Soviet Union was won, without any nuclear exchange taking place.
The slogan adopted by the current doom mongers is "Save the Planet", which is completely preposterous, as, barring some cosmic catastrophe, Earth will continue to circle the Sun for at least another four billion years, yet the brainwashing being perpetuated by extreme environmentalists, and tacitly supported by many of the media, such as the BBC, is scaring people quite unnecessarily.
Despite the claims of the latter it is quite possible that any warming may be temporary, as it was in the Middle Ages, and may anyway have nothing to do with human activity, while carbon dioxide is a minor component of Earth's atmosphere (about 0.04 per cent), much of it formed by photosynthesis, and is actually good for plant growth.
We sensibly ignored those obsessives who used to wave placards warning that "The End is Nigh", and we should treat the modern version with similar scepticism, not allow them to frighten children with their dire prophecies.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 28th July 2023
Several decades ago I worked with an ex policeman who had, when younger, stood guard on 10 Downing street during the time when Winston Churchill was Prime Minister, and was also used as a body double when the famous statue was created. Later a fellow member of our bowls club told me how he had been in the police detail for Chartwell, again when Winston was present. Both these men thought Churchill to be a truly great man, and knew him as one who treated everyone with courtesy and kindness. As I live only fifteen miles from Chartwell I have visited the house on a number of occasions, and seen the tributes to him from around the globe, showing how he inspired so many in so many countries.
For most of my life the vast majority of Britons considered Churchill to be the greatest ever Englishman, and indeed most still do. However in recent years some, particularly those employed in woke universities, who seek to rewrite history to accord with their twisted views, have conducted a campaign against his memory.
This was a man who, quite apart from the manner in which he rallied the nation against the Nazis, ensured, as First Lord of the Admiralty, that the Royal Navy dominated the seas in the First World War, initialised the concept of the tank, and was instrumental in charting the course of Allied strategy during the Second. Had Halifax, and not Churchill, taken over from Chamberlain in 1940 Britain would have sought a shameful peace, which would first have resulted in being implicitly complicit in the crimes of the Nazis, and eventually would have led to a Britain run by a quisling such as Oswald Mosley.
Those political pygmies, and trendy academics, who deride the great man, and seek to teach youngsters that he was guilty of what they consider crimes, are beneath contempt. Of course, in a political career of over sixty years, he made mistakes, but, if he had not existed, democracy would have vanished, and countless millions of innocent people would have died at the hands of the totalitarians. No modern politician comes even close to his true greatness.
Kent Messenger - 27th July 2023
As one of many who has warned that the university system had degenerated into a massive confidence trick it is gratifying to see that at last this is being recognised by much of the media, and by many politicians.
The victims of this massive fraud are the students themselves, many persuaded to take on large debts in order to gain effectively useless degrees, the taxpayers, who subsidise this dysfunctional arrangement, and all those who worked hard to provide an educational system which was once the envy of the world. When my generation was of an age for college in the early 1960s the students were given a grant, graduated without debts, the courses were meaningful, and the possibilities of a worthwhile career strong, none of which is true today.
The fact that in those days it was necessary to prove one's academic worth meant that the entry requirements were predicated on A levels being a true test of ability, but, in order to fulfil Tony Blair's absurd aim of sending half of all youngsters to university these have now been downgraded so that non academic youngsters will be accepted and waste three years, with a similar effect on the O level equivalents, thus corrupting the entire school system.
The arrogance of apologists for the universities is breath taking. One declared that university helps turn a student into a thoughtful, curious and creative human being, with a balanced moral compass, so one supposes that those of us who did not attend are just unintelligent morons, without principles. A clergyman even sought to compare the relationship between a don and his students with that of Christ with the apostles, an absurd, and indeed almost a blasphemous assertion.
At a time when the nation needs to cut its coat according to its cloth there are clearly great savings to be made in tertiary education. We need engineers, scientists, doctors, architects, lawyers etc. but we do not need vast numbers of arts graduates, studying pointless subjects. Those polytechnics which were promoted to be universities should be returned to their original status, and concentrate on encouraging vocational careers, and empowering the provision of apprenticeships, while meaningless courses offered at the remaining universities should be abolished, reducing the number of such institutions, and ending the scandal of student debt.
Kent Messenger - 17th July 2023
The vast majority of normal people depending on their race, gender, or sexual orientation, must be sick and tired of being called racist, sexist or homophobic, just because they may not subscribe to every jot and tittle of the various ideologies currently distorting our society, and will wonder what is behind it all.
The obvious culprits for all this nonsense are the virtue signalling, self hating metropolitan liberals, who dominate so much of the media, and the establishment, determined to suppress any opinions other than their own by trying to demonise opponents. These people are doing immense damage to what was a free society.
However there is actually another factor, which lies behind this distortion of the truth, one that has beavered away for 175 years, seeking to undermine our democratic ideals. I am not one who gives credence to conspiracy theories, most of which tend to be deranged, but this concerns what has been the most long lasting conspiracy to have afflicted the world, and caused endless misery, Marxism.
The Nazis were a barbaric, nihilistic regime, which in just twelve years, caused immense human suffering, yet Marxism is a slow motion copy of the former. In the time since the Communist Manifesto was published in 1848 Marxist regimes have been responsible for millions of deaths, and have oppressed nations around the globe, but have managed to convince the naive and gullible that their intentions were egalitarian. They claim to represent the economically oppressed, but in reality have made the latter's lives worse, as those who dominate these parties are seeking power for themselves, rejecting democratic socialism in favour of their system which elevates the party to be the only arbiter of how society should be organised.
Much of the blame attaches to the leaders of the Bolsheviks. Stalin was a cynical despot, but both Lenin and Trotsky approved of dictatorship, and their model of Marxism is the one which is copied. In order to achieve power Marxists seek to bring down democratic societies, and they are behind most of the disruption we have seen. Karl Marx himself recognised how the ideal had been corrupted, and proclaimed towards the end of his life "I am not a Marxist". Their 'long march through the institutions' is bearing fruit as our education system becomes more a propaganda machine, than a means of teaching youngsters. They are the real enemy we should be fighting if we are to preserve our nation.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 21st July 2023
The deplorable proposal to close rail ticket offices is accompanied by the usual public relations nonsense spouted by organisations about what is clearly a reduction in services being in fact a benefit to the customers. This mendacious excuse is often accompanied by a claim that the changes involved are only a reaction to public demand. Banks made it harder and harder to use branches, then asserted that most people preferred to use online banking, large numbers of retail outlets refused cash, and then claimed that people didn't want to use same, and supermarkets replaced personnel manning tills with self service machines declaring that this is what was desired. In reality these bodies are intent on cutting jobs, and making more money, while treating their consumers with contempt.
Of course these attitudes comes from the very top, where CEOs and senior managers, use obfuscatory language to conceal their arrogance. Ordinary working class people are paid wages, executives are paid salaries, while the bosses receive what they call compensation, as if they deserve to be compensated for being so generous as to give of their time to do their jobs. Bonuses, which years ago were exceptional, and needed to be earned, are now paid even to incompetents who fail miserably in their tasks, while so called golden hellos, and golden parachutes, are handed out to those part of the magic managerial circle, who scratch each others' backs, regardless of their actual abilities.
The ordinary person faces a constant decline in services thanks to this selfish section of society, while being expected to be grateful for the supposed benefits being granted to them by such beneficent organisations.
Kent Messenger - 6th July 2023
I was born just after this country had emerged from the greatest war the planet has yet seen, and from which we emerged victorious because of the courage of the British people, and those great allies who joined us in the fight against the most evil regime ever to have disfigured human history. In the years that followed we live through the fear of a nuclear war, but did not allow ourselves to be seduced by the siren voices of those such as CND, whose policy was to get on their knees, and trust in the goodwill of the Soviet dictatorship. We knew that we were in peril, but had the will to stand firm, and again triumphed. Safe we were not, but neither were we cowed.
At my grammar school in the 1950s we were expected to treat teachers with respect, always referring to them as 'Sir' or 'Miss', and knew that any serious infringement of the rules would result in punishment, up to and including expulsion. Later, in our adult lives most of us abided by the norms of society, but were not afraid to confront those with whom we disagreed, and would not be reluctant to give offence, if that was what was justified, not accepting limitations on what we chose to think, say and believe.
What a contrast we now see. A few schoolchildren, whether from a desire to mock their so called progressive teachers, or because of mental problems, are declaring that they self identify as something that they clearly are not, and in so doing are disrupting the education of the vast majority with their antics. In my day any child spouting this nonsense would have been very quickly disciplined, and if recalcitrant, would have been expelled. Today however, many teachers, who should clearly have never been allowed near a classroom, are not merely indulging this rubbish, but actually encouraging it. When fellow pupils refuse to humour these fantasies they are frequently insulted by the adults in charge, who clearly believe in this absurd ideology.
When youngsters reach university they are then immersed in a milieu which claims that the principle of free speech must be overruled by the requirement to prevent ideas contrary to the received wisdom of the ideologues being discussed, with a demand for 'safe spaces', or in other words that debate should be suppressed. Later, in the world of employment, arrogant HR officials are allowed by too many organisations to impose the idea that nothing must ever be said that might offend even the tiniest minority, while ignoring the vast majority of sane people.
How have we as a society allowed all these pusillanimous, and pathetic, snowflakes to gain so much power? Normal, decent people should call an end to this preposterous posing, and restore common sense to centre stage.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 30th June 2023
Every day it becomes clearer that the Conservative government is conservative in name only. Although there are many good constituency MPs, and a number of true Conservatives such as Suella Braverman, the majority of the party's representatives in parliament would be described, at best, as Social Democrats, who have no real belief in the policies upon which the party won a landslide in the last general election, and very little sympathy with the views of those in the grass roots who elected them. On issue after issue this government either does nothing, or basically allies itself with the so called progressives who dominate all the main opposition parties.
At a time when it is obvious that the Bank of England has completely lost its way, apparently unaware that one cannot indulge in an unfunded increase in money supply without causing inflation, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has nominated Megan Greene, an American, a registered Democrat, and a supporter of the movement for net zero, to join the Monetary Policy Committee. She described Brexit as 'the most damaging blow ever inflicted on the liberal democratic world order', this from someone who comes from a nation which would reject with contempt any proposal to subject American democracy to the control of a foreign power.
The shortlist of candidates for the candidate to oppose Sadiq Khan for Mayor of London now includes one who describes himself as a passionate Remainer, while another is content merely to say that he is a Remainer, ignoring the fact that the voters made clear that they want to take back control from the bureaucrats of Brussels. The government, led by a Prime Minister who stabbed his predecessor in the back to achieve the office, has failed to abolish the plethora of EU rules and regulations which still afflict us, while even being afraid to release the billions arising from the forced sale of Chelsea F C to relieve suffering in Ukraine, because the EU does not approve.
On other matters those who now control the Conservative party are obsessed with imposing disastrous policies on the country in a doomed pursuit of net zero emissions, based on a theory which constantly becomes more absurd, refuse to take stern action to stop the environmental activists disrupting our society, talk a great deal about stopping illegal immigration but fail, and indulge the deranged demands of those who are trying to undermine the rights of women in the cause of a vanishingly small sexual minority. Even where they have the power to take immediate action, such as the sacking of those whose wages are paid for by taxpayers, if they refuse to return to work, they equivocate.
There is much talk of uniting the party, but this is nonsense when those in parliament are pursuing a different agenda to those who voted for them. Only a revolt by the grass roots can save the situation, but there is little time to act.
Kent Messenger - 29th June 2023
As the political elite, ably supported by their cheerleader the BBC, gloat over their success in pulling down a Prime Minister who had the courage to speak for the ordinary people, one sees a constant criticism of what the former refers to as populists. The term is obviously intended to be pejorative, but what it really reveals is that the elitists resent finding themselves in a minority on an issue, as they believe that of course they, and those who share their cosy consensus, should not be challenged, or worse, outvoted by those they regard as the great unwashed.
In the aftermath of the 2016 referendum it was clear that these arrogant, selfish snobs regard ordinary people as inferior because they lack power, wealth, or status, and should not get above themselves by daring to oppose the groupthink of the ruling class. At one time the latter were aristocrats but these days it is a coalition of so called intellectuals, professionals, politicians, luvvies, and talking heads from much of the media, who fear being thought of as, to use the modern parlance 'uncool' for espousing such things as patriotism, or exhibiting a concern for the problems of the average person, as opposed to promoting the interests of sexual minorities, or the like.
Those who supported Boris and Brexit could see that the democracy they and their forebears fought for was being handed over to Brussels bureaucrats, while those who now demand that something be done to stop illegal immigration across the channel are not racist, but are angered by the failure of the government to take any effective action. Ironically those feminists who have spent decades seeking equality now find their efforts undermined by activists aggressively promoting the demands of the 'trans', and are themselves called populists, and bigots, for refusing to tamely give way.
Significant thinkers of the past spoke of the need to respect the views of common people. George Orwell, on the matter of intellectual liberty said "The common people still vaguely subscribe to that doctrine of intellectual liberty and act on it, as it is the liberals who fear liberty, and the intellectuals who want to do dirt on the intellect." Edmund Burke, who championed representatives, rather than direct rule by the people, said "I am not one of those who think that the people are never in the wrong. They have been so, frequently and outrageously, both in other countries and in this. But I do say that in all disputes between them and their rulers the presumption is at least upon a par in favour of the people", again something which is ignored by modern elites, who think of themselves as being morally, culturally, and intellectually superior to the common herd.
As far the Conservative party is concerned, for the second time a popular Prime Minister has been ejected by the so called 'one nation' Tories, who are in fact 'no nation', given that they wish to see this country become no more than a province in a single European state. Both Thatcher and Johnson were elected by landslides, but the self serving time servers on the Conservative back benches arrogantly overrode the decision of the electorate, and once again the Heathite wing of the party is in control. Wets in the party say that the most important consideration now must be party unity, but this is untrue, as a united party is infinitely less important than the preservation of the nation, and is of no use if its intentions undermine the latter.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 23rd June 2023
If one was on trial, and discovered that the forewoman of the jury had already declared their belief in your guilt before the evidence had been presented, I suspect that one would feel fully justified in objecting vociferously that this was not right, and is this not precisely the situation that Boris Johnson found himself in relation to the court looking into his alleged conduct, with the Chairman having already declared her belief in his guilt before the enquiry began. In addition, a leading Conservative member is himself facing allegations of breaking lockdown, while the committee contains a majority of opponents of Brexit. Of course those involved claim that this was all from the very noblest of motives, but anyone with any sense knows that the campaign against Boris is really because he sought to honour the wish of the people that the UK should leave the EU, in the face of determined opposition from the coalition of Remainers, both inside and out of the Conservative party.
Those MPs who had anticipated obtaining obscenely well paid sinecures in the European Parliament, or appointments as officials in the bloated EU administration, suddenly found that they were no longer available, and they were determined to take their revenge. This hostility has extended to almost all those such as Priti Patel, Dominic Raab, and Nadine Dorris who joined Boris is attempting to do the right thing.
Following what happened to Margaret Thatcher this means that for the second time a Prime Minister has been ejected by the so called 'one nation' Tories, who are in fact 'no nation', given that they wish to see this country become no more than a province in a single European state. Both Thatcher and Johnson were elected by landslides, but the self serving time servers on the Conservative back benches arrogantly overrode the decision of the electorate, and once again the Heathite wing of the party is in control. Wets in the party say that the most important consideration now must be party unity, but this is untrue, as a united party is infinitely less important than the preservation of the nation, and is of no use if its intentions undermine the latter.
In the 16th Century we stopped Spain from extinguishing our independence, in the early 19th it was the French under Napoleon, and in the 20th the Germans, yet now a majority of our so called elites wish for nothing more than to surrender our sovereignty to a foreign entity. Our forefathers would be outraged if they knew how many of their descendants wish to give away the democratic birthright which was bequeathed to them. Henry VIII's ending of the secular subordination of England to the pre Counter Reformation Church of Rome, albeit partly for personal reasons, constituted the Tudor Brexit. He would have known just what to do with those who gave their allegiance to an alien state, but now we must fight to defeat these people by other means.
Kent Messenger - 22nd June 2023
I do not support the left liberal social policies espoused by Nicola Sturgeon, and her successor Humza Yousaf, nor do I wish to see the UK broken up, yet there is one aspect of the latest furore which highlights a serious problem. It may very well be that eventually Ms Sturgeon will be convicted of a criminal offence, but, as things stand, she has been released from police custody without charge, and is therefore, at the moment, innocent in the eyes of the law. Mr Yousaf, while not impressing in his first months in office, does deserve respect for refusing to apply sanctions, such as suspending, or expelling, Ms Sturgeon from the SNP, because allegations are proof of nothing, and she is entitled to be treated as innocent unless, and until, she is found guilty by a court.
It is this acceptance by far too many that to be accused of something illegal is to be automatically guilty, and which results in trial by Twitter, rather than by a jury of their peers. I remember speaking to someone many years ago, who, on being appointed to a jury, thought that the fact that the police had brought the case, meant that the defendants could not be innocent, and that was before the arrogant buffoons of social media were able to weigh in with their condemnations of those whom they did not know, and without any real knowledge of the facts. This rush to judgement is compounded by the way in which much of the media jump on the same bandwagon.
Too often people are suspended from their jobs, or even banned from their profession, particularly in relation to claims of sexual abuse. based upon no more than unsubstantiated accusations, and even if cleared of wrong doing, are marked by some as suspect, and usually are not able to resume their lives with adequate compensation for what they may have endured in lost employment and reputation.
Of course, those actually guilty should be punished to the full extent of the law, but anyone who supports the kind of treatment meted out to those at the receiving end of allegations should beware, as anyone, including them, can fall victim to lies, as the principle of innocent unless proved guilty is gradually being eroded. Too often there may be an agenda behind accusations, as has happened when schoolchildren, offended by being told off, have been known to blackmail teachers by warning that they would make unjustified accusations of sexual abuse against the latter. Clearly there are many instances when there is truth in the claims, but not always. In the past "He said, She said" as the only facts would not have resulted in a viable case, but now this seems to be overlooked.
Being, inter alia, a teacher, a scoutmaster, or a priest, now carries a risk that they may subjected to false accusations, and treated as guilty unless they can prove otherwise. Where it is shown that the accuser lied, there should be sterner sanctions available, as there are when someone makes a false accusation of rape. However, the 'no smoke without fire' brigade infesting social media would never accept that they might be wrong, so the media should ignore these ignoramuses, not assist them by giving them publicity.
Daily Express - 19th June 2023
In both the USA and the UK the radical left has now succeeded in demonising opponents who actually represent the interests and beliefs of the ordinary working people. However neither Donald Trump, nor Boris Johnson, have forfeited the support of the latter, and it may be that either or both may return. If not then democracy is dead in both countries.
Kent Messenger - 15th June 2023
Anyone using Kent roads will be aware of the state of decrepitude into which they have fallen. Potholes are either left as they are, or repaired in a cheap and inefficient manner, road markings are so faded that many are unreadable, and road signs in rural areas are frequently obscured by foliage. Despite having the responsibility for Highways the KCC states that is has insufficient financial support from central government, so cannot afford to discharge these functions. Yet both bodies are controlled by the Conservatives, so any blame must fall upon them.
The real scandal is that Kent, despite lacking funds, is bearing the cost of illegal immigration by those capable of paying criminals thousands of pounds, breaking our laws by arriving in small boats, jumping the queue for consideration for genuine asylum, and disappearing into the general population, putting immense pressure on the NHS, and availability of housing, while undercutting those of the host community, generally lowest paid working class citizens, seeking employment. The excuses made by those supporting such activity is that those arriving are fleeing persecution, choosing to ignore the fact that in reality these people are fleeing from France, a liberal democracy. The total imbalance in numbers between young men and others makes clear that most are economic migrants, whose departure from their home countries can only make the position of those remaining worse.
The usual suspects on the Left, mainly middle class, in comfortable, safe jobs, always display a knee jerk reaction involving supporting all and sundry, except their own people, while we also endure lectures from virtue signalling members of the House of Lords, plus accusations of racism against anyone who dares to oppose throwing our borders open to the potentially enormous numbers of economic migrants seeking to live in the UK. The Conservative government talks a lot about putting a stop to all this, but, as usual, does nothing effective.
However the people traffickers need have no fear of their trade being terminated, as the left liberal establishment now has such a grip on this country that it would take a social revolution to force a real change of policy.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 9th June 2023
I am increasing frustrated by the unwillingness of ordinary, decent people to express their opinions on certain matters, thanks to the attempts of activists to shut down debate. I know from conversations with friends and acquaintances, and indeed those whom I meet in the course of social events, that the vast majority do not agree with those who refuse to recognize biological reality in relation to gender, or with the environmental extremists, who arrogantly claim the right to break the law, and impede others from going about their business, in the name of a dubious climate theory, not accepted by many scientists.
I am horrified by the number of people who, having agreed that they do not concur with the causes supported by these demonstrators will then say "But of course one can't say that!". This is deplorable in a nation which, together with our cousins in the USA, gave the world the ideals of free speech and democracy. Instead, people should adopt the slogan used by Barack Obama "Yes we can!".
Twenty years ago organisations such as Laurence Fox's Reclaim party, and Toby Young's Free Speech Union, would not have been required, but now they are in the vanguard of the response to the authoritarian zealots. Unfortunately the authorities, in the shape of the police, the courts, the universities, and a large number of politicians are either afraid to confront the latter, or worse, actually support them. If this continues the burning of books, as espoused by Joseph Goebbels cannot be far away.
It is an absolute disgrace that people have lost their jobs thanks to proclaiming the truth, or have endured threats from these militants for daring to question their actions. Brave souls such as J K Rowling are doing their best to challenge these fanatics, but they need the population to summon up the courage to stand with them, and not to be intimidated by these bullies.
We can still defeat the bigots, but if we fail to do so, we shall see Orwell's Thought Police become a reality.
Kent Messenger - 8th June 2023
Many of those, such as myself, who lived and worked through the 1970s, must feel that they are experiencing a time warp. We endured sky high inflation, widespread union militancy, failure in many services, and an incompetent political class, which, particularly the Conservatives, was largely supportive of submerging this country in a single European state. The weak, and mendacious Prime Minister, Edward Heath, was obsessed with such a policy, and, by concentrating all governmental efforts on signing away our sovereignty, lost all control over domestic affairs, making constant U turns of which the present incumbent would be proud.
The major lesson so painfully learnt, and only confronted when Margaret Thatcher become PM, was that the cause of inflation is a nation printing money that exceeds that which it obtains in income, thus devaluing the currency, and causing the price of everything to rise. One would have thought that the failure of wage and price controls attempted in that decade would have made clear that one cannot tame inflation by attacking the symptoms, any more than one can tame a boiling kettle by putting one's finger down the spout, but now, in 2023, the government is pretending that asking supermarkets to cap prices will succeed.
Edward Heath belonged to that section of the Conservative party which, while neglecting the interests of the country, and lacking true patriotism, were, and are, determined to blame the trade unions for all the ills of the economy, ignoring the fact that it was usually inefficient managements, and selfish employers, who brought so much of industry low. Today we see companies, determined to get the most for the least, supporting almost unlimited immigration for workers, rather than investing in a future based on the training of our own people.
The success of the use, subsequent to the 1979 election, of reductions in taxation to stimulate the economy, not least corporation tax, is now ignored as the present Chancellor seems to have adopted the Denis Healey approach of squeezing until the pips squeak, a policy which has always failed in its objectives.
The horrors of the three day week, and later the winter of discontent, were largely due to the inept way the government imposed idiotic policies which solved nothing, but provoked an inevitable reaction from those enduring rising costs, rising taxation, and general disruption. The more ideological trade union leaders were treated with kid gloves, until Mrs Thatcher introduced reforms which curbed Marxist and like-minded agitators, while allowing reasonable representatives of the workers to take back control of their organisations. As we watch the constant strikes taking place today, frequently led by those with a very political agenda, it seems as if we shall soon be back in the days of beer and sandwiches at number 10.
Despite the fact that all the lies told by the Europhiles from Heath downwards have been exposed, as the EU continues its doomed attempt to suppress the nation states of Europe, the spirit of those days lives on, the Remainers enthusiastically seeking to reverse any attempt to honour the expressed will of the people.
Why on earth have the political class forgotten all that we endured during that deplorable decade, and are now subjecting us to a rerun?
Kent and Sussex Courier - 2nd June 2023
No decent person would regard slavery as other than an unalloyed evil. However, it is clear that those demonising our past, distorting museums, lying to our schoolchildren, and demanding reparations, are either totally ignorant of history, or more likely pursuing an agenda based on virtue signalling, a hatred of this country, and the hope of obtaining money.
Slavery was a feature of every civilisation from classical times until the 20th century, practised by all races, by Native Americans, by every European empire, and by Arabs, the Muslim slave trade massively exceeding the European over centuries. African tribes used fellow Africans as slaves as long ago as Roman times, and when Britain began to enforce abolition across the world they were met with protests by African royalty.
No one denies that Britain was very much involved, particularly in the 17th and 18th century, but what the campaigners ignore is that from the early 19th century onwards it was the British Empire which led the fight for abolition, and used the might of the Royal Navy to drive it from the seas, the dozens of ships on the West African station putting an end to the transatlantic trade. It was the British who forced Brazil to give up the slave trade, as well as stopping such trading to the Americas, and the Persian Gulf, later banning slavery in, inter alia, Zanzibar, Egypt, Nigeria, Indonesia and India.
Britain, driven by Christian and Enlightenment ideals, repented of its involvement in the slave trade, and in 150 years, enabled by her position as the superpower of the 19th and early 20th century, atoned by expending vast sums to suppress it worldwide. It has been described as the most expensive example of international moral action in history, and was conducted in the face of opposition from most developed nations of the time.
Historically, the idea that Britain was somehow the most culpable nation in promoting slavery is nonsense, and the activists choose to disregard that, not only is the virtual suppression of this vile trade owed to this country, but to claim that we should now pay reparations to those whose remote ancestors were victims is absurd. If this kind of action is to be taken then where are the payments from Italy to most of Europe, due thanks to the Ancient Romans? Of course, we should give aid to those in poorer countries, particularly those who suffered historical abuse. However, those advocating that vast amounts of money should be extracted from working class British citizens to pay these demands should remember that very many of the ancestors of those to be taxed for this purpose endured dreadful conditions during the industrial revolution, and no one is championing the idea that their descendants should receive compensation.
Our Victorian forefathers would be incensed if they knew of the distorted history being used to attack those who did so much to remove the evil of slavery from the world.
Kent Messenger - 1st June 2023
This country is rapidly ceasing to be a democracy, as arrogant bureaucrats stand in the way of the elected representatives of the people attempting to implement policies of which the former disapprove. When my mother was in the Service in the 1920s, the civil servant's raison d'etre was to give advice to elected representatives, while providing an efficient administration. It was never part of their duties, for political reasons, to oppose actively, and even to obstruct policy. The elevation of bureaucrats above elected politicians is of course the basic system operated by the EU, and is why so many of our own officials so love the latter.
Today we see the spectacle of senior staff actively undermining ministers whose policies with which they disagree, most egregiously in the fields of relations with the EU, and immigration. In order to achieve their ends they attack individual ministers personally, alleging that the maintenance of a normal chain of command is bullying, and have succeeded in causing Prime Ministers to back down, thus forcing resignations from those they particularly despise. This happened with Priti Patel, with Dominic Raab, and now they are turning their guns on Suella Braverman, strangely all exceedingly competent Brexiteers. The renewed charge against Boris Johnson, is also being driven by officials taking it upon themselves to report a senior politician to the police, without even contacting him beforehand. The fate of Dominic Raab also makes clear that we now have a PM who is prepared to throw anyone under the bus, rather than take a decisive stand against the left liberal establishment, of which the senior Civil Service is so prominent a member.
This behaviour by unelected, imperious and prejudiced functionaries extends to organisations such as the Equality and Human Rights Commission, whose chairman, Baroness Falkner, hardly a conservative figure,is being subjected to similar attacks by her own officials, alleging bullying and harassment, but clearly motivated by the latter's opposition to her valid views on transgender issues.
Unless they are confronted, the so called mandarins will ensure that whatever the electorate may wish, policies unpalatable to them will be sidelined. As far as the transgender lobby is concerned it is past time for ordinary people to stand up to them, and say that they will no longer tolerate their absurdities, which do not reflect the views of the vast majority of the people.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 26th May 2023
The current government, and indeed the vast majority of the political class, could have given Nero lessons in fiddling while Rome burns, as this country is collapsing, both in the big things, and in the little, yet all they do is talk.
At a local level the postal service is a shadow of its former self, one is obliged to drive a chicane to avoid gaping potholes, and retail available in high streets has declined precipitously. Those unable for economic, or other reasons, to own mobile phones, or credit cards, find life becoming increasingly hard, as cash is refused in so many places. Companies, and utilities increasingly hide behind websites in order to avoid dealing with their own customers, often providing no avenue by which one may speak to an actual human being. Those without internet access are just ignored.
On a national level the NHS, far from being the envy of the world, and despite the best efforts of clinical staff, has become a national embarrassment, with millions unable to see GPs, and waiting lists stretching away for years into the future. The education system is in the grip of activists, who feed children lies about our past, while promoting the claims of those who assert that biological reality is merely a social construct, the universities being no more than propaganda outlets for these extreme minorities. Taxes are being increased, at the very time they should be decreased to stimulate the economy, while the Bank of England, having failed in its duty to control inflation, attempts to blame everyone else.
The ludicrous target of net zero carbon emissions, excused by adherence to a dubious climate theory, is set to deprive us of our cars, and threatens our ability to adequately heat our homes in the future. Civil servants and others are refusing to return to the office, surely a sackable offence, as the tasks they are supposed to carry out are being totally neglected. Knife crime, and the consequent death of large numbers of youngsters grows constantly, while a large part of police resources is used to pursue innocent citizens for supposed thought crimes.
In 1936 Churchill, referring to Joel's biblical description of the "the years that the locust hath eaten", spoke of the locust years which the appeasers of the 1930s wasted when Hitler should have been confronted. A similar description can now be given about perhaps the greatest scandal of all, the betrayal of Brexit in the years since the 2016 referendum. The majority of the political and bureaucratic class has deliberately stood in the way of the implementation of the changes for which the electorate voted, and used nonsense about cake to bring down Boris Johnson, who had earned their enmity by actually trying to fulfil the will of the people. As it is we still are subject to endless regulations created by the Brussels bureaucrats, the promises made to control our borders have been totally broken, and the opportunities to make the UK a truly global nation are being ignored.
The Conservatives do not deserve to be in power, yet the main opposition parties, with their obvious intentions of gerrymandering the electoral system to overturn the result of the referendum are despicable. Rome is indeed burning.
Kent Messenger - 25th May 2023
When, in 1936, condemning the appeasers dominating parliament, Churchill declared them "Decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.", a charge which applies equally to the current government which has proved itself to be weak, vacillating and incompetent. They have betrayed Brexit, pursued exactly the wrong economic policies to achieve growth, allowed a minority of activists to effectively take over the education system, undermining free speech, presided over the collapse of the NHS, and only showed certainty in their idiotic unquestioning acceptance of the dubious claims of the climate alarmists.
All these policies could be radically changed by a determined administration, but disastrously, proposals put forward by the opposition would, if implemented, change this country in ways which could not be undone. It has long been clear that the Labour party is dominated by those who wish to ignore the result of the 2016 referendum, and return this county to rule by unelected foreign bureaucrats, and, if given the chance, will amend the electoral system in order to achieve their ends. To give the vote to sixteen and seventeen year olds, who lack life experience, and have been subjected to indoctrination by so called progressives in schools, while granting the vote to EU citizens, who will inevitably support a rejoin agenda, plus allowing as many as a million immigrants a year to settle in this country, will distort the electorate totally in favour of the Remainers. In addition, their support for the trans, and environmental lobbies, would damage our society probably beyond redress.
While policies changes could, by a determined government be reversed, the gerrymandering of the electoral system could not, without removing the vote from those to whom it would have been granted, and an unacceptable expulsion of people allowed to settle in the UK. The Conservatives have betrayed their natural supporters, and reneged on almost all of the promises made at the general election, and since, and will only have themselves to blame if they become a permanent minority in Parliament. They may regard the Prime Minister as a 'steady as she goes' saviour, but in reality, he represents a philosophy of 'keep calm as we sink beneath the waves'.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 19th May 2023
Rishi Sunak's government is consistent in one thing. It makes promises to implement policies clearly aimed at public support, only to, within a short period, unfailing announce that it will not after all go ahead, or that it might, but only at some indeterminate point in the future. Far from providing a reason to vote Conservative it is generating despair among its natural supporters, relying on Hillaire Belloc's principle of "always keep a-hold of Nurse, for fear of finding something worse", given the alternative of a coalition of Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens.
This reversal of promises made has been highlighted by the decision not to go ahead with, by the end of 2023, the removal of laws resulting from EU membership, thus betraying once again the will of the people as expressed in the 2016 referendum. It is also a sell out by the Prime Minister personally, as, when running for the leadership, he was definite that these laws would be repealed. He may appear a personable man, who was apparently a Brexiteer, but it is obvious that he is prepared to say anything for power, yet to have little intention of actually sticking to his word.
Boris Johnson was hung out to dry over supposed breaches of good faith, yet the current Conservative leadership seems to have turned the making of U turns into an art form. Unless they can find the courage, to quote Shakespeare's Henry V to "Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood", and implement the policies upon which they were elected they will deservedly lose the next general election.
Kent Messenger - 18th May 2023
Those such as Vivien Clifford, who refer to the suffragettes as a means of justifying law breaking to protest about issues on which they feel strongly, are completely missing the point. If one has no right to change things by democratic means, as was the case with the female half of the population, who did not possess the vote, then indeed illegal action is the only route forward. However, in a democracy, where everyone has access to the ballot box, the avenue to be used is to support, and elect, those who advocate the changes you wish to seen made, not to attempt to achieve your aims by force. To do otherwise invites anarchy.
Protest is one thing, blatant law breaking something else entirely. I wonder just how many of those who excuse pressure groups such as Extinction Rebellion would react if others were to emulate them, but in support of policies with which they disagreed. For instance, it is obvious that the political and bureaucratic elite have successfully blocked a proper implementation of Brexit, as evidenced by the latest retreat from abolishing EU laws to which we are still subjected. If Brexiteers were to block traffic, disrupt legitimate events, and vandalise works of art unless this latest change of policy was reversed, I very much doubt that the militants who claim to approve of such behaviour would be supportive of the idea that it was fully justified.
The two ideals which we, and our cousins in the USA, have given, however imperfectly, to the world, are democracy, and the rule of law. If the latter is to be ignored by anyone who has an axe to grind, then the former will not long survive.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 12th May 2023
It is deplorable that some politicians and senior police officers have apologised for the arrest of protestors at the coronation, as why should the enjoyment of millions be marred by the actions of a few obsessives who were determined to politicise what should be a national occasion. That reports indicate some were carrying paint, others rape alarms, and many fastening tags, make it very likely that peaceful, and lawful protest, was not all that they had in mind, and one can imagine the criticisms had the police done nothing, and chaos had resulted.
Those who claim to be republicans clearly do not understand that constitutional monarchy has proved to be one of the most successful systems of government yet devised, as separating the symbolic, and neutral, head of state from the elected executive is a major safeguard for democracy. This is evidenced by the manner in which King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy was able to dismiss the fascist leader Mussolini in 1943, and that King Juan Carlos I of Spain stopped a coup by army officers in 1981.
I suspect that those on the Left who claim to want an elected head of state would not be happy were they to be faced with a President Boris Johnson, while conservatives would not have welcomed a President Tony Blair. A genuine neutral figure, arrived at by hereditary means, is by the far the best method.
BBC History Magazine - 9th May 2023
It may be true, as Katja Hoyer claims, that there was a degree of comradeship, and social cohesion in East Germany, but the price was too high. The massacres of 1953, the killings which took place at the Berlin Wall, and the suppression by the secret police of all those who failed to obey the diktats of an increasingly corrupt regime vastly outweigh anything that can be said in its favour.
Although there will always be some groups who will benefit from opportunities in authoritarian states, the vast majority of people will lead a worse life than they could enjoy in a liberal democracy.
Kent Messenger - 4th May 2023
Yet another innocent child, Lola James, has been tormented, and finally died at the hands of the brutes who should have been caring for her. I found reading the statement from her real father when he said "Lola was as bright as the golden sun. She was beautiful, charming and cheeky. Her laugh would fill the room with pure joy. Even as a toddler Lola has a passion for the outdoors and everything out there - the birds, bees and butterflies" almost unbearable. This child will never know the joys of life, yet the cowardly monsters who killed her will one day walk free again.
I am sure that I am not alone in feeling overwhelming pity for the poor mite, hatred for those who killed her, and anger that once again an innocent was failed by the system which should have protected her. I am also sure that many ordinary people will agree with me that murderers like this should be executed, not merely as a deterrent, important as that is, but also as a simple matter of justice.
How much longer are the delicate consciences of those who consider themselves so liberal in opposing capital punishment going to be allowed to prevent just punishment being imposed on those who crimes cry out to heaven?
Kent and Sussex Courier - 28th April 2023
For over forty three years I was a Civil Servant, the last twenty as a Principal officer based in Westminster. Then, as when my mother was in the service in the 1920s, the civil servant's raison d'etre was to give advice to elected representatives, while providing an efficient administration, existing to implement the policies upon which the latter had been elected. It was never part of their duties, for political reasons, to oppose, and even obstruct such policies.
Today we see the spectacle of senior staff actively undermining ministers whose policies with which they disagree, most egregiously in the fields of relations with the EU, and immigration. In order to achieve their ends they attack individual ministers personally, alleging that the maintenance of a normal chain of command is bullying, and have succeeded in causing Prime Minsters to back down, thus forcing resignations from those they particularly despise. This happened with Priti Patel, now with Dominic Raab, and next they will assuredly turn their guns on Suella Braverman, strangely all exceedingly competent Brexiteers.
The elevation of bureaucrats above elected politicians is of course the basic system operated by the EU, and is why so many of our own officials so love the latter. Unless they are confronted, they will ensure that whatever the electorate may wish, policies unpalatable to the so called mandarins will be sidelined.
The fate of Dominic Raab also makes clear that we now have a PM who is prepared to stab friends and erstwhile supporters in the back, rather than take a decisive stand against the left liberal establishment, of which the senior Civil Service is so prominent a member.
Kent Messenger - 27th April 2023
I am a supporter of rights for animals, a vegetarian, and one who makes regular donations to animal charities, and have acted as a street collector for same. I agree with those who consider steeple chasing to be unacceptable, given the large number of deaths of horses which occur, and believe that those organisations, such as Animal Aid, and the RSPCA, who campaign for it to be stopped, are right. However, unlike the people who interrupted the Grand National, they do not advocate breaking the law in order to achieve their aims.
What the activists, both in this matter, and in others, do not accept is that, in a democracy, there are lawful methods of advancing an argument, and that the system provides the means to change things without resorting to criminal activities. If these zealots claim that they have the right to ignore the law cannot they see that, in the end, this leads to anarchy, a state in which the weak become subjected to the strong, and eventually results in an inevitable reaction, and the establishment of authoritarian rule.
I am sure that many of those who justify their actions by asserting that they are totally sincere, and that they support a cause which is of more importance than the rule of law, would be utterly opposed to similar measures being taken by people who oppose illegal immigration, abortion, or the teaching of trans theories to their children at school.
In reality most of these vociferous, and aggressive, protestors are actually, at bottom, motivated by a desire to shout "Look over here, aren't I virtuous". Most militant climate change protestors know little of science, the propagandists of trans theories know nothing of biology, and those who attack Britain's past know nothing of history. None has respect for democracy.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 21st April 2023
I was recently reminiscing with an old school friend about the time we were youngsters in the 1950s. Although clearly many things have been improved since those days, not least in economic conditions, nevertheless for boys from working class homes, there were many matters which we regard as having been so much better in the past.
An excellent education was available via the grammar schools, now sadly greatly reduced in numbers, while going to a decent university in order to study for a worthwhile degree, as did my wife, did not entail running up kind of massive debts taken on by today's students, now so often leaving with degrees of no use in the workplace. The BBC still represented the nation, unlike today when it is just spouts left wing propaganda, and the ordinary person had access to GPs, and to hospitals, without the deplorable waits we see now.
There were bank branches in every town, and there was no attack taking place on the use of cash, such as is happening today, leading to things like parking becoming a nightmare for those without the relevant technology, while developments in the latter have inflicted upon us scammers, the morons of social media, and a younger generation addicted to the use of screens. Mobile phones, and computers, and the Internet are a very mixed blessing, with the latter depriving us of the kind of social interaction which is so vital to a decent society. The destruction of our high streets by online shopping is obvious for all to see, while the lunatics of woke did not dominate public discourse, as in the past such people would have been reduced to writing letters in green ink to newspapers. We were able to think, say, watch and read what we wanted without being lectured by snowflakes.
The total insanity of acceding to the demands of a vanishingly small minority of transexuals, to the detriment of, in particular, the rights of women, would have been laughed out of court in the fifties. The police were regarded, and generally acted, as friends of the ordinary people, not a force apparently determined to persecute people for their thoughts. They were visible on the streets, and kept order even in the little things, which are these days ignored. Politicians, though far from perfect, still regarded national defence as a priority, and would have prevented the kind of breaches of our borders now permitted, while there was no mention of handing our democracy over to a foreign power, as happened in 1974. The elevation of a dubious theory regarding climate change to the status of unquestioned fact is distorting everything, as the authorities strive to reach a net zero which is both unattainable, and unnecessary.
The days of idyllic villages with a green, a church, and a local shop, are now just a memory. The comfort of Church, organisations such as the Scouts and the Boy's Brigade, and the cadet forces, provided a benevolent framework to life. Indeed, now I constantly feel the truth of the last lines of Thomas Hood's wonderfully nostalgic poem "I remember, I remember", "It was a childish ignorance, But now 'tis little joy, To know I'm farther off from Heaven, Than when I was a boy".
Kent Messenger - 20th April 2023
It is ironic that, more than a century after the suffragettes fought for women's rights, and large strides in the direction of equality have been made, their cause should be seriously undermined, not by opposition from men, but by the demands of a vanishingly small minority of transexual activists, led by the usual arrogant so called intellectuals of the Left, of whom Attlee famously once said "never listen to them, they are always wrong". The interests of more than half the human race are now given a lower priority than those of a tiny number of people with mental problems.
For many years women strived to be given separate sex hospital wards, train carriages, toilets, and changing rooms, and largely succeeded, yet now these things are being withdrawn in order that males who self identify as females may have access. Feminine icons, such as J K Rowling, whose books have brought pleasure to millions, and encouraged youngsters to read, has been demonised for daring to object to all the nonsense being propagated, something which is nothing more than an Orwellian mantra of "Men are Women". That a biological male should be chosen by a sports company to model a bra is beyond belief, as is a male rapist being imprisoned in a women's jail.
Successful female athletes, such as Dame Kelly Holmes, and Sharron Davies, have made clear their opposition to males, claiming to be females, being allowed to compete in women's competitions, a position shared by many other Olympians. Only someone determined to deny reality can claim that such a policy would not allow an unfair advantage to such people. That the Labour leader claims that some women can have physical male characteristics is absolutely ridiculous.
Youngsters, in that period of life when adjusting to the changes of adolescence, are being encouraged to believe that they are transgender, instead of being told that their worries are unfounded, and will pass, and are persuaded to undergo unnecessary procedures. Unfortunately the USA, a great and generous nation, lacks the phlegm of the British, and are afflicted with too many psychologists, psychiatrists and psychoanalysts. Gender only appeared as a problem when it was referenced in the journals of the American Physiological Society, in a title published in 1982, yet now even Britain is being affected.
A fightback is taking place but it beggars belief that such a situation should ever have arisen, and it is time common-sense reasserted itself in our society.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 14th April 2023
The BBC continues on its merry way, consistently denying any bias, while at the same time, becoming ever more partisan, and in hock to the woke lunatics of the liberal left. The surrender of the organisation to that ignoramus Gary Lineker, whose knowledge of history is clearly non-existent, and also to those who supported him, rather than dismissing them, was abysmal, and only took place because clearly his opinions are shared by those in power at the BBC. We now learn that the BBC has chosen Mae Muller to represent this country at the next Eurovision song contest, a left-wing activist who hates Boris Johnson, and made derogatory comments about him as he was in hospital with Covid, calling the Conservative Party "racist and elitist", and who has consistently offered succour and support to the West's enemies. saying "I hate this country".
That this mindset extends to the BBC drama department is evidenced by the travesty that is the new production of Dickens Great Expectations. Not content with distorting the characters beyond recognition, the writer puts the opinions of the contemporary Left into their mouths, pretending that they condemned what the latter regard as our historic sins, such as the Empire. Dickens must be spinning in his grave.
The sooner this abomination of a broadcaster, shamefully spreading its anti-British propaganda, is privatised, and ceased to be supported by the enforced taxation of the licence fee, the better.
Kent Messenger - 13th April 2023
More organisations seem to be jumping on the bandwagon of those determined to demonise our history, in particular that of the British Empire, removing anything which they claim is supportive of slavery, or oppression. It doesn't matter to them that this is based upon a total misreading of the past, and they pretend that somehow the Empire was uniquely evil, ignoring both the good it did, and the comparable history of other empires which have come and gone throughout time.
Of course slavery was, and is, an unqualified evil, but this has been a feature of most nations over centuries, the Greek and Roman empires in antiquity, the ubiquitous slave trading in Arab nations for centuries, and the treatment of enslaved people by the Nazi and Soviet empires in living memory being examples. What is constantly ignored by those attacking our record is that we actually took action, losing thousands of men in the fight to drive the slave traders from the seas, and liberating many of the peoples they were exploiting.
While the Roman and Nazi Empires were overtly intent on conquering other nations, as Sir John Seeley, the Regis Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge from 1869 to 1895, once remarked We seem, as it were, to have conquered and peopled half the world in a fit of absence of mind. In fact the absorption of several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, was partly due to the need to put and end to inland slave trading, and not a lust for territory. Indeed, when the Ottoman Empire offered Gladstone the exclusive control and administration of Egypt, he refused, as the British did not wish to take on the burden of administering another large territory, although circumstances eventually did result in the country coming under British control. The fact that India became part was initially driven by trade, and the East India Company, not some unworthy desire for power over others.
If the Empire was so bad, why did a large numbers of previous colonies choose to become part of the Commonwealth, an organisation now joined by some countries, such as Rwanda, Mozambique, Gabon and Togo, who were never part of the Empire. Those who think that they are virtue signalling are in fact merely displaying their ignorance, and distorting the past in a way that George Orwell recognised as being a distinguishing feature of authoritarians everywhere.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 7th April 2023
There is a significant section of humanity which possesses an apocalyptic frame of mind, and is always seeking extreme solutions to problems which are frequently unreal. In the 1950s, in reaction to fears of a global holocaust, naive and gullible people joined Communist fellow travellers in calling for us to throw away our nuclear weapons, or else we would all die. We did not, won the Cold War, and are still here.
Since the fall of Communism a similar irrational reaction to variations in climate has created a situation where we are constantly told that we must distort our entire way of life to counter what the doomsayers claim to be an imminent threat to the human race. The latest such was in the New York Times on 20th March 2023 which claimed that the Earth is likely to cross a critical global warming threshold within the next decade unless drastic changes are made, based on a study by the consistently alarmist Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which recommends that, among other things, developed nations deindustrialise, an insane policy which would plunge hundreds of millions into poverty. However this is only the latest in a long line of similar warnings, which have proved to be incorrect.
In 2004 the Guardian warned that by 2020 major European cities would be sunk beneath rising seas and Britain would be plunged into a Siberian climate. Did not happen. In 2006, Al Gore claimed that unless world leaders took drastic measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Earth would pass the point of no return in ten years, yet 2016 came and went, and now we're being told the early 2030s are the real point of no return. Later in 2009, he declared that, during some of the summer months, there is a 75% chance that the entire north polar ice cap could be completely ice free within the next five to seven years and, in 2013 the Guardian stated that the US Navy said that the Arctic would be ice free in summer by 2016. The ice is still there, all year round.
In 2009, Gordon Brown, the U.K.'s prime minister, said we had fewer than fifty days to save our planet from catastrophe, while, nearly four years ago a now defunct think tank ThinkProgress claimed that we don't have 12 years to save the climate, we only have 14 months, and nearly ten years ago former French prime minister Laurent Fabius warned that the international community had only 500 days to avoid climate chaos.
All these wild prophecies are reminiscent of those given by religious groups that the world will end on a given date, but, when it fails to do so, they just move the date further into the future. The reality is that, in the four billion years of the planet's existence, climate has always changed, and that this is nothing to do with human activity. We would be mad indeed to totally undermine our society in order to counter what is no more than a chimera. By all means make changes, but at a sensible timescale, and based on working technology, not the panicked demands of extreme activists.
Kent Messenger - 6th April 2023
There can be no more revealing fact about the state of academia in the West than that a defector from North Korea states that the American education system is insanely demonising capitalism, and Western civilisation as a whole, and is overtly racist in its condemnation of Caucasians. Yeonmi Park says that debates on gender have become crazier than in her home country, with professors claiming that genders were a social construct made up by the majority population to oppress minorities, and that they accused her of being brainwashed when she opposed such ideas. She believes that freedom should mean the right to practice your own religion, and to enjoy free speech, yet these supposed intellectuals obsess about so called safe spaces, and seek to restrict both freedom of speech, and of thought, on campuses.
We in the UK have not yet reached such levels of absurdity, but there can be no doubt that the direction of travel is in that direction, as student activists, with the connivance of academic staff, prevent any point of view other than that of the woke being allowed to be heard, by their enforcement of no platforming, and the disgusting attacks on anyone, student or teacher, who dares to hold a different opinion to these fanatics.
Unless this essentially fascistic movement is repelled our universities will follow the Americans in becoming no more than centres of extreme left wing propaganda, which will poison the minds of the younger generation. Do we really want to end up with a more repressive regime that that run by the Kim family in North Korea.
Kent Messenger - 30th March 2023
It is the first duty of a government to ensure the defence of the realm, yet all the major parties have failed this test over decades, as every time the Chancellor is short of money the amounts allocated to defence have been the targets for reduction, to the point where we now have the smallest army in centuries, the navy is no more than a shadow of its former self, and the air force could not sustain an effective defence of this country for any length of time. We are told that some senior British and American officers are saying that, in the event of a major war, the British defence forces are on the cusp of being unable to defend this country. Only the threat of using our nuclear weapons would remain, but, as a reaction to conventional attack, this could not be used.
The Americans might decide to retreat to Fortress America, and who could blame them in the light of the failure of the European nations to spend enough in their own defence. The continual cutting back of our defence forces in the name of economy, means that, should the American umbrella be withdrawn, we would inevitably go down to defeat.There are straws in the wind which indicate that isolationism is gaining strength in the US, as is evidenced by recent statements made by Ronald DeSantis, a likely contender for president in 2024, who has dismissed US support for Ukraine and other allies as a waste of resources, and said that leaders should pay more attention to issues at home.
As was proven in the 1930s we would not save ourselves by throwing others to the wolves, and a triumphant Russia would not be content with conquering Ukraine. Must we see history repeated as first the Baltic States, and then the nations of Eastern Europe are attacked one by one, before Putin turns his baleful eye on Western Europe and the UK, as, if Ukraine falls, then the protections offered by NATO may very well be proven illusory.
There is no point in saving money to spend on welfare etc. if our whole society was to be overwhelmed by enemy forces, who would care nothing about such matters.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 24th March 2023
At a time when charities supporting the less well off, and the elderly, are trying to preserve the use of cash, the Tunbridge Wells council has firmly nailed its colours to the mast of the movement aiming to abolish it.
On a recent trip to the Assembly Halls to see the Ukrainian State Opera, I found that, not only is it impossible to park nearby without a smartphone, or credit card, but inside the venue cash is deemed unacceptable for absolutely everything, including programmes, ice creams and drinks.
Currently about 12% of the population do not own a smartphone, rising to 35% among the over 65s, while 32% of adults do not have any sort of credit card, but obviously these people are considered not worthy of consideration by the council.
Even more irritating was the fact that it was also not possible, except at the bar, to obtain receipts when paying. We are constantly advised by financial experts to keep a record of our expenditure, but this is clearly of no concern to those obsessed with abolishing the use of paper, however vital.
Fortunately the excellence of the performance, and the emotional effect of the audience rising to applaud the cast singing the Ukrainian national anthem, made the evening memorable for good reasons.
Daily Express - 10th March 2023
Gary Lineker is clearly ignorant of history if he truly believes that attempts by a democratic government to stop illegal immigrants entering the country can in anyway be compared to the horrors of the Nazi regime of the 1930s.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 10th March 2023
Seventy five years ago George Orwell, in my view the greatest political thinker of the 20th Century, wrote the novel 1984. This was one of the most prescient books ever written, eclipsing most science fiction stories, in that it is so true to the age in which we now live, while, as a horror story it puts fantasies such as Dracula in the shade. Not only did Orwell predict the Thought Police, the two minute hates, and Newspeak, but he foresaw the mutability of the past becoming the means to suppress truth.
The novel contains the following paragraph, which anyone not in thrall to the woke will recognize as being a clear description of what is taking place right now, in our universities, our streets, and in public discourse "Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right." Of course the fall of Communism means that it is no longer the Party, but the new puritans of the liberal left who are to be treated as always right. These people are well aware of Orwell's dictum "And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed, if all records told the same tale, then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past."
When we see the statements in the novel that "The Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." who can doubt that this is the philosophy behind the assertions, among others, made by the woke that a man is a woman if he says he is, regardless of the truth. We must reject these deranged lunatics, and demand that objective truth is how things must be judged, not the insane claims of these modern witch-finders. If we do not then we face a reality, encapsulated by the novel's main character, Winston Smith, at the beginning of 1984 "To the past, or to the future. To an age when thought is free. From the Age of Big Brother, from the Age of the Thought Police, from a dead man - greetings!". The Ministry of Truth is awaiting its moment to be born.
Kent Messenger - 9th March 2023
In his response to my letter Steve Tasker appears to believe that to restate the current position is to justify it. Who exactly is to blame for the massive expansion of universities is irrelevant, as it is their existence, and the proliferation of useless degrees, which is the problem, as in evidenced by the fact that, youngsters have recognised this reality, and are increasingly seeking other avenues into the world of work. Perhaps I should have not used the word tertiary, but I clearly limited my comments to universities.
That the NHS now requires new staff to have degrees is not an advance, as not only does it prevent non academic recruits following a vocational route, but it helps to conceal the fact that, as many of those I know who work at the sharp end of health care attest, the problem is with the unnecessary layers of managers draining the life out of the system.
The Civil Service expanded over years, thanks to its role as the EU's enforcer in this country, and a proper implementation of Brexit would immensely cut back bureaucracy, but it is the growth of the HR industry which is one of the most damaging changes to threaten productivity, and prosperity in this country. As one who was the chairman of our office union for over twenty years, I saw how these people undermined previously good relations between management and workers, while imposing ever more absurd policies which did nothing more than obstruct the real work.
Those who may have escaped the tentacles of HR should be aware that parliament is considering the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Bill, which will rendering businesses liable for harassment of their employees by members of the public, seeking to extend third-party liability to every type of 'unwanted conduct' , including overheard conversations, so, if the bill becomes law, employers will have a duty to protect their workers from overhearing 'upsetting' remarks made not only by their colleagues, but by third parties as well. To protect themselves organisations will have to enforce every jot and tittle of HR regulations on customers, so that to make a justified complaint to one of their employees could constitute a breach of same, including the nonsense about pronouns.
For the sake of the nation the tide of bureaucracy must be turned back.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 3rd March 2023
It is clear that the ordeal endured by the family of Nicola Bulley was made worse by the actions of those on social media, who put forward theories, and made accusations, without any proof, even claiming that her bereaved husband was culpable. Deplorable as this is it is obvious that it is only a part of a greater truth, that the internet is a curse, not a blessing, and that it, and further developments in technology, are destroying our society, and threaten humanity's future.
It has empowered those whose only recourse in the past was to shout nonsense on street corners, so that now they can broadcast their moronic ideas to the world, and abuse anyone who opposes them, rendering social media a cesspit. Conspiracy theorists, no matter how idiotic their beliefs, have a field day, while the practice of cancelling individuals is a pernicious form of bullying causing many, particularly children, deep hurt. As far as the latter are concerned the presence of despicable websites encouraging self harm, and even suicide, have been responsible for actual deaths, while the sinister advocates of the woke ideology have used the web to attempt to brainwash youngsters, and to silence anyone who does not subscribe to their vile creed, while countless people have suffered loss from the scams now so ubiquitous, something the authorities seem unwilling to properly confront.
The commercial use of online retail has done more damage to our high streets than did the Luftwaffe, while countless people have suffered loss from the scams now so ubiquitous, something the authorities seem unwilling to properly confront.
Only this week we have seen a report that online gambling is causing more and more people to fall into debt, and that it has fuelled the addiction. The effect on the use of cash has made life harder for those who cannot afford to use credit cards, while the existence of the web has also caused problems for many organisations whose white collar employees are refusing to come into the office, claiming that they can work from home, not a luxury afforded to most of the working class who man the factories, run services such as the fire brigade, and the front line NHS.
Quite apart from these current ills caused by technology we are creating AI entities which, in addition to the fact that they cannot by definition have a spiritual side, will be lacking the animal half of our nature, so that they will not experience emotions, and in particular empathy, a lack which in humans makes a person a sociopath, and consequently a danger to all. Of course, we now have a tiger by the tail, and will not be able to let go. The dystopia created by technology warned of by science fiction writers now seem to be rapidly approaching.
Kent Messenger - 2nd March 2023
I feel sorry for any pupils taught by John Cooper, as he clearly sees history through the prism of his own political prejudice. Of course I am aware that Britain did not win the two world wars alone, but the fact remains that, despite the number of nations fighting on the Allied side in both, it was only Britain who fought against the forces of darkness from beginning to end, and, had we lost either, then certainly Europe, and in the second war, the world, would have seen the end of what we still hope is the journey towards the light.
The debacle of Norway, the evacuation at Dunkirk, the fall of Tobruk, and of Singapore, made victory seem unattainable, yet after El Alamein, and with the entry of the Soviet Union, and the US on our side, we won through. We could not have done so without these mighty allies, but they could not have won had we gone down in 1940, as American aid to Russia would not have been possible without the British Isles in allied hands, the relentless bombing of Germany industry would not have massively hampered Hitler as he invaded the Soviet Union, and the Americans would eventually have faced a navy derived from the German, Italian, French, Japanese and British fleets. Given the almost unlimited potential of America she would probably have survived, but would have then had to live in a world dominated by fascists. Obviously, Mr Cooper would not accept any of this as evidence, but then he would not accept anything which did not chime with his view of the world.
His claim that the brainwashing of youngsters in our schools does not exist is just plain wrong, as is evidenced by the nonsense is being fed to the latter about Britain's almost uniquely malign past, while ignoring all the good that she has done, including the suppression of the slave trade, and spreading the ideals of democracy around the world.
As far as A Parsons is concerned he may find the Thought Police of the woke seeking to impose Newspeak on us, the environment extremists desire that we should freeze, or starve, in order to reduce emissions which are anyway only one per cent of the global total, and the growing threat from the totalitarian states, to be amusing, but I doubt that this emotion will be shared by the victims if the worst should happen.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 24th February 2023
On the political spectrum we derive the terms Left and Right from the seating arrangements in the French National Assembly during the Revolution, yet these labels have become largely meaningless in a modern context. It is noticeable that the broadcast media, in particular the BBC, and some national newspapers, use the t'erm 'far right' to describe any organisation or person who does not subscribe to the prevailing fashionable opinions espoused by the liberal elite, so those who would describe themselves as conservative are demonised by an attempt to conflate their views with those of the lunatics of Nazism and Fascism.
Conservatives (with a small c) of all parties, and none, are not the rapacious Victorian mill owners of the fevered imagination of the Guardian readers of North London mansions, but sensible people who believe in an orderly, not authoritarian society, support constitutional monarchy and parliamentary government, are often religious, patriotic, without being nationalistic, and respect the law, provided that there is a democratic way for the people to make changes to the latter, the absence of one being the main reason that so many wished to leave the European Union. They expect a criminal justice system, which defends the innocent, requiring punishments to fit the crime, but are supportive of the welfare state as a means of ensuring that no one is left destitute, and, while seeking friendship with other nations, are aware of the need to maintain our defences in a perilous world.
A large section of the working class support these straightforward ideas, but Marxists, and the like, arrogantly consider that they know better than those they purport to represent. In reality the enemies of decent people are the fanatics of fascism, nihilism, anarchism and communism, to which must now be added those attempting to distort our society with the idiotic notions put forward by the so called 'woke'.
Unfortunately those who today like to consider themselves liberal, and treat opponents as selfish, ignorant, or worse, are actually among the most illiberal section of society. They might think of themselves as impeccably Left, and morally superior to conservatives, but in fact have more in common with the intolerant, aggressive authoritarians than they have with those who really believe in democracy, and freedom.
Kent Messenger - 23rd February 2023
The failing in the services provided across the board in the public sector, and indeed increasingly in private companies, is attributable to two major decisions by the political class. The first was to join the bureaucratic, and undemocratic, European Union, the second being Tony Blair's policy of sending fifty per cent of youngsters to university.
The intention that so many pupils, however unacademic, should be pushed into tertiary education necessitated a reduction in standards throughout the system, from school to college, with the result that many now have degrees which are of no real use, but for which they had paid large sums, and spent many years obtaining. In order to conceal this fact government has been obliged to create pointless managerial jobs, particularly in the Civil Service, and the NHS, which absorb resources, yet contribute almost nothing worthwhile to these institutions.
However the main culprit is the malevolent effect of transferring democratic control from elected representatives in Westminster to unelected bureaucrats in Brussels. Although we have escaped the EU, our over forty years as members has left us with a managerial culture, which hamstrings large numbers of organisations, and diverts resources from the task of creating prosperity, while empowering sections of society who believe that they have the right to overrule policies determined by popular mandate.
The worst of these misbegotten creations of the EU years is of course the Human Resources industry. These parasitic departments obstruct those seeking to do a real job, while inflicting upon workforces endless pointless policies, and create legions of non jobs, highly paid, but useless, such as consultants on diversity, wellness and sustainability, while taking it upon themselves to dictate social responsibilities, properly the province of elected bodies.
The Civil Service exists to implement the policies laid out by those elected by the people to parliament, yet the former now seem to think that they have the right refuse to attend the office, to create actual policy, make personal attacks on ministers with whom they disagree, and actually refuse to work on projects if they do not like the political intent of same. They are for the most part devotees of the EU, and block attempts to rid us of the malign remnants of membership. That so many companies in the private sector are falling into the same trap is the consequence of weak and inefficient senior managers preferring to leave such matters to the very people who are creating the problems.
We must complete the revolution against the bureaucrats by abolishing the whole of the HR industry, reducing the number of managers in the NHS by ninety per cent, dismissing those public employees who will not come into the office, or believe that they have the right to determine policy, and ceasing to waste time and money turning out ever more graduates for whom there is no demand, while foolishly continuing to neglect the creation of apprenticeships, and on the job learning.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 17th February 2023
The people of the Ukraine are displaying all the courage the British people showed during the Blitz, while President Zelensky bears comparison to Winston Churchill, his combat fatigues becoming as familiar as the latter's siren suit. It is essential that the democratic nations of the world unite behind these brave victims of Putin's aggression, and, as President Zelensky echoes Churchill's words spoken in 1941 "give us the tools and we will finish the job", he is making an appeal which must be heeded.
If we fail to give Ukraine what is needed for victory then not only will they descend into a dark night of oppression, but the totalitarian states around the world will be emboldened to follow the path of force. China will continue on the road to war with Taiwan, North Korea will become even more threatening to its neighbours, while the dictators of Iran will destabilise the Middle East to the point where Israel may be obliged to take action, or face genocide.
As was proven in the 1930s we would not save ourselves by throwing others to the wolves, and a triumphant Russia would not be content with conquering Ukraine. Must we see history repeated as first the Baltic States, and then the nations of Eastern Europe are attacked one by one, before Putin turns his baleful eye on Western Europe and the UK, as, if Ukraine falls, then the protections offered by NATO may very well be proven illusory, given that the Americans might decide to retreat to Fortress America. Who could blame them in the light of the failure of the European nations to spend enough in their own defence.
While our public discourse concerns such nonsense as allowing men to declare themselves women, universities placing trigger warnings on the novels of Jane Austen, and tolerating attacks on both our language and our values by the lunatics of woke, we may eventually be forced by our own pusillanimous behaviour to face reality in the form of Russian bayonets.
Kent Messenger - 16th February 2023
Sophocles' play Antigone is believed to be the origin of the phrase "those whom the Gods wish to destroy they first make mad", and the Ancient Greeks knew of what they spoke. In this country public discourse is dominated by nonsense about pronouns, our education system is brainwashing youngsters into believing that Britain is somehow uniquely guilty of past sins, while ignoring the fact that we saved the world from Nazism, cultural icons are attacked by the woke, who are now out of control, and we are sacrificing our industrial strength by fixating on reducing the one percent of global greenhouse gases we produce to zero, in pursuit of an unproven theory.
At the same time the totalitarian states are on the march, in Russia's case literally, while we allow our defences to shrink to the point where, as some American generals have said, we are becoming incapable of defending out nation from aggression. Do we never learn? At the Armistice in 1918 we had the largest navy, the largest air force, and the most efficient army in the world. Yet twenty years later, following what Churchill described as the 'years the locusts ate', we faced the terrible power of Nazi Germany with a tiny army, an ageing, although still the largest, navy, and an air force with tremendous potential, but outnumbered by the Luftwaffe. We won but, as Wellington said of Waterloo, it was "the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life".
Should we continue to neglect our defences, and, as a consequence, go down to defeat, all those who attach great importance to nonsensical issues will find that such things are irrelevant to the victors.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 10th February 2023
Steve Barrass seems to have finally left the realm of reality altogether, as he attempts to link Brexiteers to the practices of the London of Charles Dickens. He, and all those who continue to stamp their feet because they were outvoted in the referendum, wilfully refuse to recognize that the EU is sinking deeper into both corruption, and irrelevancy. They make specious claims about the relative performance of the UK and the EU, ignoring the fact that last year our GDP grew faster than that of France, Italy or Germany, while food prices have risen by more in the EU than they have here at home.
The EU has never deviated from its integrationist aims, lacking any means to change course, while desperately trying to preserve the single currency, whose one size fits all nature dooms those nations for whom it is proving a disaster. Indeed the financial mess brewing in France will inevitably prove to be the final straw for those more responsible countries which wish to see some sort of sense applied to economic matters.
The response of the EU to Russia's war on Ukraine, exposes just how catastrophic it was to embrace Merkel's policies regarding energy, military and trade strategy, leaving Western Europe beholden to a totalitarian state. Only the UK has shown true integrity in standing by Ukraine from the beginning.
Thanks to the pro EU prejudice, and plain incompetence, of our political and bureaucratic elites, the real benefits of Brexit are yet to be reaped, although the freedom to run our own affairs is allowing us to slowly, too slowly, to remove the baleful influence of the bureaucratic monster centred in Brussels. Contrary to the support advocated by Mr Barrass for a petition to consider the impact of Brexit, we would do better to spend our energies on finally ending all connection with this failing organisation. We would be insane to attempt to rejoin what is an irredeemable basket case, heading for the dustbin of history.
Kent Messenger - 9th February 2023
In response to John Cooper, I have read all of Orwell's essays and novels, and have no doubt that the comments he made about the British intelligentsia of the pre war years apply equally to the current liberal elite. As he said "England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality. In left-wing circles it is always felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman, and that it is a duty to snigger at every English institution".
Mr Cooper asks for evidence, and one only has to look at the behaviour of that left wing icon George Bernard Shaw whose admiration for the tyrant Stalin lasted, undimmed, until his death. After a visit to the Soviet Union in 1931 he became an unashamed apologist, viewing reports of the Ukrainian famine of 1933 as "slanderous". He supported the terror and said that the Old Bolsheviks, put to death after show trials, "often have to be pushed off the ladder with ropes around their necks".
The individuals have changed but the mindset persists, now compounded by the humourless bigots of social media, who are determined to denigrate everything this country has done, ignoring the good for which we have been responsible, not least in spreading democratic ideals around the world. Mr Cooper may believe that to deny that these people exist is sufficient. It isn't.
Martin Chandler need not concern himself with my soul, because anger is not a mortal sin, as is evidenced by the fact that our Lord himself displayed such emotion when he drove the money lenders out of the temple. Rather, as a church going Christian, I am aware that to be apathetic is condemned in the Bible, as it says in Revelation "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm - neither hot nor cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth". In any case I am quite happy to dispute with those who hold strong views different from mine, provided that they are based on knowledge, rather than attempt to reason with those whose main method of debate is to make ad hominem attacks on those with whom they disagree, Guy Steward's description of me as stupid being a case in point. Contrary to what he claims, I do know that climate matters. I just question whether changes that take place are anthropogenic in origin, in opposition to Lesley Flint's assertion that such claims are indisputable.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 3rd February 2023
The response by Paul Rowlandson to my comments on inflation show that he is unaware of the difference between the rate of exchange, and the rate of inflation. While it is true that an increase in the cost of purchasing goods from abroad will affect those who do so, this has nothing to do with the value of money. The majority of transactions within the economy are internal, and unaffected by the exchange rate, but it is the manner in which the government spends money it fails to raise through taxation that leads to the inflation which afflicts us.
Mr Rowlandson's contention that fifty per cent of our imports come from the EU is a gross over estimate, while over seventy per cent of our economic activity is not connected to foreign trade. The blame for inflation lies not with the democratic decision to leave the EU, but is due to the propensity of politicians to spend more than the country can afford, in order to buy votes.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 27th January 2023
Many Americans consider it normal that even little children have therapists, something which the rest of the world, and particularly in the UK, regard with amused contempt. The underlying cause of all the nonsense that Prince Harry is spouting is the result of this therapy obsession to which he has been subjected since moving to the USA. Anyone inclined to take so much of the rubbish produced by therapists seriously should watch the American series 'Frazier', which thoroughly debunks the profession, and proves that our cousins do in fact have a great sense of humour, although it is not actually difficult to recognize just how absurd are so many of their theories. If all these claims were to be true then no one can be held responsible for anything, and humans do not have free will to make choices.
During the war my parents, working to produce munitions in the Woolwich Arsenal, were required to frequently flee for their lives to the bomb shelters during the Blitz, and lost their house to air attack in 1940. The great generation went through two world wars, the depression and constant economic struggles, but just buckled down and got one with it, yet the Duke of Sussex seems to think that a refusal to take his whining at face value somehow threatens his physical safety. Many of the statements made by Prince Harry are totally ridiculous, but the claim that this over privileged Royal couple had to flee for their lives is one of the most absurd.
The therapists seem to specialise in inventing a myriad of disorders which are used in American courts to defend those who are in fact just plain evil, while the old joke about being dropped on one's head as a child is merely one of similar excuses trotted out by those attempting to avoid the consequences of their actions. Of course, some indeed do requite help, as there are many unfortunates who are suffering some sort of post-traumatic stress disorder, are enduring a stressful situation, or have a genuine mental condition, but the vast majority of people adopt the principle of keeping calm and carrying on, not feeling the need to seek advice from psychiatrists.
Prince Harry is the negative side of his namesake in Shakespeare's history plays, for, although the latter was, in his youth, an embarrassment to his family, when he succeeded as monarch he became one of England's greatest kings. Thankfully, barring a disaster, the current Prince Harry will not ascend the throne, something which would destroy the monarchy, and hopefully he will gradually disappear from public consciousness, becoming no more than a peripheral annoyance.
Kent Messenger - 26th January 2023
In his reply to my letter concerning BBC bias John Cooper accuses me of presenting no proof as to the points I made. I would have considered my references made to the slanted descriptions of past events, where no effort is made to present a balanced view of multiple issues, such as slavery, racism, or more recently Brexit, and climate change, are obvious to anyone watching.
He asserts that I do not produce evidence, yet any reasonable person knows that letters editors have limited space, and endless quotes from recent investigations revealing the one sided nature of BBC output would render a letter too long for publication. I could easily produce a lengthy article on the subject, but it would be rejected for reasons of space, if no other.
The BBC declared some years ago that they would not allow any dispute on the subject of climate change, insisting that the science was conclusive, which it is not. The choice of panellists, and indeed the selection of audiences, for such programmes as 'Question Time', and 'Any Questions', ensures that opinions contrary to the fashionable opinion of the so called progressive elite, are either not presented, or vastly overmatched by the number of supporters of the latter. I know a number of people who can no longer endure the constant propaganda produced by these programmes, so can no longer watch them. Unfortunately this also applies to so called comedy programmes such as 'Have I got news for you'.
The presenters on BBC news programmes act as attack dogs against those speaking against what the organisation considers to be the truth, reacting with incredulity to the idea that anyone could hold a different opinion, while giving opposing speakers every leeway. Even their sports presenters are allowed to air their personal political prejudices, predictability always on the left liberal side, while a recent independent survey castigated the drama department as consistently presenting a negative view of this country, and its past.
As Mr Cooper denies my assertion concerning those who have always hated their own country I can only suggest that he reads the political essays of George Orwell, who knew these people only too well. Unsurprisingly Mr Cooper claims that no evidence can be produced to justify the view that the universities are brain washing students, yet we daily read of the latest insane theory being imposed by these bodies in support of the woke. The professors of the past, who often in tutorials made very controversial statements, in order to provoke students into thinking, and responding as to why they disagreed, would never have accepted that everything they said should conform to the diktats of the latter.
I shall not respond to his ad hominem attacks on my abilities, beyond saying that my academic record at grammar school, and college, indicates that I am capable of formulating, and defending a position. I was once a great admirer of the BBC, based on its sterling efforts during the war, but it is no longer the same organisation, and I am sure that Lord Reith would be horrified if he could see what it has become.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 20th January 2023
The level of debate concerning economic matters in this country makes clear that this is a subject which should be made a compulsory part of the curriculum, as even the most basic features appear to be unknown to the majority of people. There are inescapable truths, which many, particularly politicians, try to obfuscate, but nevertheless they remain true.
The use of the term investment, instead of expenditure, conceals the fact that, while investing in a stock market issue, with a view to making a profit, is an example of the former, the government increasing the funds available to organisations such as the NHS is straightforward expenditure; although a degree of inflation may be imported, the root cause is the devaluing of the currency, due to the government spending more than it obtains in taxes, the expedient of borrowing to cover the difference being limited, and creating a debt which, together with interest must be paid at some point.
A deficit in trade between imports and exports can be sustained for a while by attracting foreign investment, but cannot continue indefinitely; demand exceeding supply leads to an increase in price, while supply exceeding demand leads to a fall; the proper operation of the market allocates resources in a way that bureaucrats trying to pick winners can never do; to attempt to protect failing industries would have led to us continuing to manufacture hansom cabs; the law of diminishing returns means that taxes cannot be increased without limit, as the income generated will eventually fall; a developed economy can only survive if it possesses effective supplies of energy, and does not try to run on wishful thinking.
None of this means that we should not do our best to support those who are disadvantaged, but a contracting, declining economy is less able to do so, nor to finance the health service, nor to defend the nation. If we are ever to restore a stable, prosperous economy the above principles should be understood, and accepted by all reasonable people, and policies must be based upon them, not on some magic money tree, which exists only in the imagination of those who prefer for political reasons to deny reality.
Kent Messenger - 19th January 2023
We are constantly harangued by the green lobby who insist that, if we do not obey their diktats then, in the words of Dad's Army's Private Frazier "we're all doomed". However these people are comparable to those pathetic individuals, haunting high streets, whom one used to see with their placards "The End is Nigh", or to those religious groups such as the Jehovah's Witnesses, who, decades ago, made the mistake of predicting the date of the end, and, when their deadline had passed, quickly recalculated to push the date comfortably into a more distant future.
These modern alarmists claim, falsely, that the scientific consensus confirms their predictions, yet I remember, only fifty years ago, when most scientists were convinced that the current inter glacial was nearing its end, and we must be prepared to face the glaciers marching again from the poles.
On an individual basis many could not have been more wrong in their statements. In 1970 ecologist Kenneth Watt claimed that within a decade those living in cities would have to wear gas masks because of atmospheric pollution, as well as stating that by the turn of the century all the oil reserves in the world would be gone. Also that year Harvard biologist George Wald stated that civilisation will end within fifteen to thirty years unless immediate action is taken, while one of the most extreme believers in the immediacy of the apocalypse, biologist Paul Stanford, was asserting in 1968 that there would be widespread global famine in the following decade, and only last week claimed that humans were causing a sixth mass extinction. None of this scaremongering proved correct.
The ecological extremists today, worshippers of the Scandinavian teenager Greta Thunberg, are just as misguided, but unfortunately we are paying far too much attention to their claims, and allowing them to undermine the very basis of our industrialised economies. Scientific progress should be our watchword, not a childish desire to return us to the dark ages. These people regard humanity as a plague, would have us back in the caves if they could, and threaten our lives because of their obsessions. If we need to, then we can do would we have always done, adapt to change, not throw out the baby with the bath water.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 13th January 2023
Adriennes Fitzwilliam's response to my comments on corruption in the EU show clearly that she has no idea of the constitutional differences between the former, and the UK. Unfortunately, due to human nature all governments will contain those who are corrupt, but, apart from the scale to be found in Brussels, it is the mechanisms by which this can be uprooted that is the main concern.
In the EU the source of legislation is not the European Parliament, but the European Commission, a body which consists of unelected bureaucrats, who are fundamentally accountable to no one, certainly not to any electorate. The parliament is nothing more than a well paid talking shop, created to obfuscate the lack of real accountability at the heart of the organisation. The corruption among MEPs is deplorable, but it is the corruption in the vast bureaucracy run by the commission which is the threat to democracy, and there is no way that the European voters can rid themselves of such people.
By contrast the legislative authority in the UK lies with the directly elected House of Commons, for although the House of Lords can advise, and to a certain extent modify law, the latter is not empowered to run the country. Ms Fitzwilliam talks of voting out MEPs, but this would make no difference to the endemic dishonesty to be found in the undemocratic oligarchy which runs the EU, while in the UK the people who actually make the laws can be turned out en masse if that is what the electorate desire. Her comments on the House of Lords is are merely a distraction from the very real lack of democracy in the EU.
Kent Messenger - 12th January 2023
The BBC has been running a risible series of contributions from its presenters, claiming that the organisation is free of any bias, yet recent surveys prove precisely the opposite.
Quite apart from the blatantly slanted reporting which dominate the news broadcasts, examinations of the output from the drama department reveal that their programmes present a totally bigoted view of history, and indeed of contemporary Britain, in which our national heroes are denigrated, past achievements are ignored, and, in particular, ordinary, patriotic Britons are targeted as being the villains of our island story.
The Empire is consistently decried as being somehow uniquely wicked, the far worse record of those of other nations being ignored. The slave trade, unquestionably a great evil, is regularly portrayed, without any effort being made to mention that eventually the Royal Navy drove the slavers from the seas, releasing hundreds of thousands of people from captivity. The recent concentration on the proposed restitution of the Benin bronzes never points out that these were seized after the massacre of British envoys, and their African bearers, Britain then putting an end to slave trading in Benin. Great figures from our past are treated as villains as, for example, a suggestion that the Bengal famine of 1943 resulted from racism by Churchill, when in fact we sent large shipments of food, despite our own wartime shortages,
If the BBC is to be believed Britain lacks diversity, despite the fact that it is now one of the most mixed societies in the world, where three of the most significant offices of state are held by members of ethnic minorities. The political opinions expressed by characters in these productions all reflect the views of the liberal elite, except where the villain of a piece is shown as right wing, and absurdly reactionary. For instance, Brexit, the result of the largest democratic decision ever undertaken, and supported by a large section of the working class, is consistently disparaged, and always treated as motivated by bigotry against foreigners, rather than the rejection of rule by unelected bureaucrats. A series such as Vigil, supposedly reflecting life on a naval submarine has been described by a submarine veteran as blatant anti Royal Navy propaganda, while academics in dramas can be relied upon to be fervent in their support for climate change theories, any opponents portrayed as empty headed and ignorant.
All this is due to the fact that the BBC is dominated by those who have always hated their own country, the heirs of the intellectual idiots who supported the Bolsheviks, or the fascist powers before the Second World War. These adherents of the woke ideology infecting the West are incapable of understanding that most of the social theories they learnt in universities bear no relation to the realities of the world. It begs the question of why the UK expends such large resources on educational institutions who deliberately brainwash their students in this manner.
No denials by the BBC changes the fact that the greater part of its output is based on the views of a very small minority, who are allowed to impose their prejudices on the rest of us.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 6th January 2023
The prophetic vision which has proved the most prescient is not The Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels, nor Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, nor even the science fiction of H G Wells, or Jules Verne, but 1984 by George Orwell. Every day we see around us his dystopian vision taking shape, from the distortion of our language, and the ending of free speech, to the ever increasing presence of an embryonic Thought Police.
Just recently the attacks on Jeremy Clarkson, completely out of proportion to any alleged sin on his behalf, are just the latest of "two minute hates", similar to those forced upon the inhabitants of Orwell's Airstrip One, as the acolytes of woke pile in, shouting from their supposed moral high ground, aiming at suppressing anyone daring to breach the limits of the supposed free speech they seek to impose on us all.
Even more sinister is the fate which befell charity volunteer Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, 45, who was standing quietly on a pavement in Birmingham when she was approached, questioned and subsequently arrested by police. Officers had received complaints from an onlooker who suspected she was praying, although she was not holding a sign or making any visible form of protest. The police officer asked, 'Are you praying?,' to which Vaughan-Spruce replied, 'I might be praying in my head'. She was then arrested on suspicion of 'failing to comply' with a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) in the vicinity of an an abortion clinic. Following her arrest, Vaughan-Spruce stated: "It's abhorrently wrong that I was searched, arrested, interrogated by police and charged simply for praying in the privacy of my own mind." She was bailed to appear at Birmingham Magistrates Court on 2 February 2023.
Obviously, now we are seeing citizens arrested for what Orwell described as a thoughtcrime. The onlooker clearly missed their profession as a Stasi informer in the GDR, while the police involved must be auditioning for positions in the Thought Police, when it is formally introduced. It can only be hoped that the magistrates before which the case is heard will recognise it for the abominable travesty it is.
Everyone who still believes in freedom of thought, speech and opinion should be alarmed by the manner in which the left liberal elite, which now dominates our society, is rapidly becoming the sort of totalitarian despotism represented by Orwell's Inner Party in 1984. I am sure that, were he alive today, he would be aghast at the manner in which his vision is becoming reality, as even he thought, after publication, that he was perhaps being too pessimistic. Unfortunately for the Western world he was only too right, as the woke fanatics distort and destroy our society.
Kent Messenger - 5th January 2023
Recent events include the stabbing to death of a young man on a Birmingham dance floor, the random shooting to death of a young woman, out enjoying herself with friends in Liverpool, and the truly horrifying multiple murders of a woman, her unborn baby, and three children by a monster who raped the little girl of eleven as she lay dying. Individuals who should have had perhaps another seventy or more years of life have had them stolen from them, while to this carnage must be added the ongoing knifing to death of youngsters on a daily basis in London, and the murder of two women every week by their so called partners in the UK.
Yet, despite all this horror, the liberal elite who have dominated this country for decades prevent the restoration of the only sanction, capital punishment, which would put a stop to this litany of death. These people would have a fit of the vapours at the very suggestion, and would no doubt be crying over the murderers, should they receive their justly deserved punishments. Clearly not all deaths would be prevented, but those who claim that it would not be a deterrent are ignoring the basic facts of human nature, while, even if it were not, it would nevertheless be a just act of retribution, and would certainly end the practice of releasing these people to kill again.
I have no doubt that those of us who advocate restoration would, as always, be abused by those who call themselves progressives, but, apart from the murderers, it is the latter who are to blame for the epidemic of killings which so disfigure our society. Nothing else will reduce the death toll, whatever psychiatrists, criminologists and liberals may claim.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 30th December 2022
It is noticeable that those who still hanker after membership of the EU, in particular the BBC, have very much downplayed the serious corruption scandal that has engulfed Brussels, with the police seizing suitcases full of cash intended as bribes for up to sixty MEPs, involving millions of euros. Remainers ignore the facts, and, despite the proof of the institutionalised criminality at the heart of the whole project, prefer to bleat about rejoining.
Anyone who knows the real nature of the EU has been aware that it is in effect rotten to the core, infested with venal, self serving egoists, with a so called parliament deliberately lacking any checks on financial transactions, leading to a culture of impunity for MEPs, most of whom are there because they have failed in their domestic politics. The behaviour of these people, particularly in member states from Southern Europe, is standard practice in their own countries, and a majority of these free loaders see nothing wrong in illegally enriching themselves at the taxpayers' expense. Those accused include vice presidents of the European Parliament, MEPs, and members of the bloated bureaucracy, which is sustained at enormous cost to the public.
Of course, those of us who always opposed the UK being involved with this corrupt organisation warned about the nature of the beast over decades, and only the Brexit vote has saved us from involvement, as it lacks accountability, transparency or any effective oversight by independent auditors. Indeed for year after year the accounts were refused clearance by auditors, yet still the magic circle of beneficiaries continues on its merry way. Ordinary people would be horrified if they realised just how much these people can obtain legally from all the perks on offer, yet still it is not enough for them.
This disgusting gravy train will run and run, until enough members states realise that the British were right all along, and leave, consigning the whole rancid organisation to the dustbin of history.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 23rd December 2022
As Tonbridge experiences yet another bank closure we are told that it is all our fault, for preferring to use online banking rather than visiting local branches, yet this is a totally hypocritical claim, as the banks have gone out of their way to make personal visits difficult, and time consuming.
I was a customer of Nat West, and its earlier incarnations, for over fifty three years, and probably visited my local branch at least once a week, where at least three counter assistants were available, each of whom could deal with the vast majority of my requirements. However a few years ago I found that the services provided at the counter were suddenly limited, and that frequently one was required to queue to see an 'advisor' in a separate cubicle for other matters. This meant that, for instance, to obtain cash, and to start a standing order, one needed to queue twice, the latter usually meaning a long wait.
Eventually I switched my accounts to the Nationwide Building Society, which has so far provided an excellent service, and which has numerous branches, apparently happy to cater for customers in an old fashioned, straightforward manner. I hope that this continues, and that the society does not decide to follow the banks down the road that they have taken.
It is obvious that those in charge of the banks do not actually want individual customers, regarding them as a nuisance, and that the senior executives would rather interact with the stock market than provide a service to the public. The fictional Swallow bank run by Captain Mainwaring would be regarded by these city types as being risibly unacceptable, as it would limit their chances to make obscene profits by pushing other peoples' money around.
It clearly does not matter to the modern banking industry that there are many people who do not have access to online banking, for financial reasons, or because of a lack of technical ability, while the fact that forcing people to use the internet opens them up to a much greater chance of being defrauded by criminals. When the latter does occur the banks the do their best to abdicate responsibility, leaving customers massively out of pocket.
As these greedy financiers will never change, and as the building societies cannot be expected to take on everyone, we need a restoration of a National Bank, run by the government, with numerous outlets available, for use by the ordinary person, and without input from any private institution, which would be certain to place selfish concerns above the common good.
Kent Messenger - 22nd December 2022
Karl Marx famously remarked that "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce", and, from our perspective in the first decades of the 21st Century, looking back to the period between the World Wars, we certainly seem to be living up to that, although it does seem to be shaping up to be more tragedy than farce. The parallels are not exact, and the chronological order differs, but there are eerie similarities.
The earlier era began with a global pandemic, and although Covid was much less serious than the Spanish flu, we nevertheless experienced a major world health emergency in the past few years.
In 1929 the Wall Street crash led on to the great depression, while in our time the financial crisis of 2008 has had an extremely detrimental effect on the economies of the world. In November 1923 the Nazis attempted a putsch to gain power in the Germany, which failed, while this month a group of right wing extremists tried, again unsuccessfully to overturn the current German government. The international order was put under threat, and, in 1939, eventually destroyed, by the ambitions of a European despot, while now we watch as the Russian dictator returns to the policies of the tank and the gun in the Ukraine.
In 1936 the monarchy was endangered by the actions of Edward VIII, a weak, vain and unintelligent man, who put his obsession with an American divorcee above any concepts of duty, while now we see Prince Harry, a courageous, but rather easily led chap, allowing his uxorious passion for one who is clearly a therapy obsessed, Californian prima donna, to lead him down a path where he is damaging his own family by giving his support to false claims which are demonstrably motivated by one who has a chip on her shoulder a mile wide.
In the run up to the Second World War a large proportion of the political class, backed by the media, sought to appease, rather than oppose the dictators, while in our own time those who wish to see this country governed by a foreign power in Brussels have sought to ignore the clearly expressed will of the British people, to have nothing to do with the single European state being constructed by the European union, rather desiring to hand away our status as an independent nation.
Given that the earlier age ended in the conflagration of the most destructive war in human history, we must hope that that aspect is not repeated, as nuclear weapons would ensure that the result was a final tragedy for humanity.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 16th December 2022
In one of its latest retreats the government has abandoned the proposal that more grammar schools would be created. Statistics reveal that more than half of current MPs attended such institutions, yet clearly they are happy to pull up the drawbridge that they once used, and prevent bright pupils from enjoying the prospects they themselves were granted.
Following the results arising from teacher assessments during lockdowns, for the teachers' unions, and the Labour Party, to complain about the gap in attainment between grammar and comprehensive schools is the height of hypocrisy. It was they, supported by politicians on the left of the Conservative party, who consistently undermined the system bestowed to us by the genuine social radicals of the post war years, closing grammar schools which provided a comparable education to that available at fee paying establishments. I attended, and support, grammar schools, introduced by Attlee when he implemented the 1944 Education Act, but now supposed egalitarians wish to destroy these excellent products of the most successful socialist government we have ever had.
It was the grammar school system that enabled many working class children, such as myself, to obtain an excellent education. I still remember my shock when, on my first day at a 1950s grammar, I was told that I would be expected to do three hours of homework every night for a least the next five years. Our teachers wore their mortar boards and gowns to the morning assembly, discipline was tight, with the ever present threat of being expelled for academic failure to a lower grade of school, while we were required to show respect, wear our uniforms, and pass class exams at the end of every term. Although economic necessity made it impossible for me to continue with tertiary education the standards learnt at the grammar school enabled me to do well at evening classes, which led on to a decent working career.
That icon of the liberals, Shirley Williams, together with Richard Crossman, both of whom attended private, fee paying, educational establishments, was responsible for the attack upon grammar schools, the means by which working class children, including myself, were able to climb the ladder of educational achievement, while Margaret Thatcher never, in over a decade, rescinded Labour's 1965 edict introducing comprehensive education, proving that even the Conservatives betrayed youngsters in the name of supposed equality. The results of this policy are with us still, the gradual decline in standards being obvious, now cumulating in a university declaring that it was not necessary for undergraduates to know how to spell, or to use grammar correctly. Such pupils in my generation would not have gained sufficient A levels to win a place at any university.
In the name of all must have prizes the comprehensive system fails both bright pupils, and those who would have benefited from a more vocational education at the technical colleges. Fortunately for youngsters in Kent the destruction of the grammar schools was not universal, so some can still benefit from their existence, and for the sake of children across the country, it is time that the policy of preventing the creation of such schools was reversed. However this useless government once again runs away from implementing policies previously promised, and makes clear that the vast majority of the political class is not fit to run a whelk stall, let alone a country.
Kent Messenger - 15th December 2022
Your correspondent Ralph A Tebbutt is living in cloud cuckoo land if he really believes that car ownership could be replaced by public transport. It might be possible in central London, but anyone living in small villages and hamlets in rural areas would effectively be trapped in their houses, those unable to walk far being rendered housebound.
He also shows his ignorance when he claims that the UK is somehow more to blame than other nations for the atmospheric pollution he decries. The fact is that, in the last decade China alone has emitted more carbon dioxide than we have since the beginning of the industrial revolution.
In any case none of this is relevant, given that to blame climate change on humanity is incorrect, as it is actually due to natural processes, over which we have no control. It was easy for people to approve the activists, the Sebastians and Sophias of Extinction Rebellion, when the heating worked, and the weather was temperate, but, as we plunge into what may very well be a long, hard winter, this approval will vanish like the morning dew.
Unless the political elite wake up to the reality they will find themselves swept away by a tide of opposition from those who would rather be warm, than bask in the self-righteousness the former seems to regard as so virtuous.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 9th December 2022
In the days when the Catholic Church was the dominant force in Europe the Jesuits said that, if they had control of a child's education up to the age of seven, then the child was theirs for life. In only twelve years of Nazi despotism the indoctrination of German youngsters produced the fanatics of the Hitler Youth, in the Soviet Union the youth organisation, the Komsomol, sought to make every aspect of its members' life be in accordance with Party doctrine, while the indoctrination of Chinese youth created Mao's Red Guards, with the intention of purging all capitalist and traditional elements from China, spreading devastation across the country.
We may feel that we have avoided these sort of excesses but, in the democratic West, particularly in the UK and the USA, we have allowed left liberal lunatics to take control not only of our universities, but also of our schools, where they have been poisoning youngsters with their woke ideas, and this has now led to polls showing that a majority of under 35s have been corrupted, so that they support campaigns to denigrate our past, and our democratic institutions, while approving of promoting the arrogant demands of those who claim the right to use medical procedures on pre pubescent youngsters in the name of rans' rights, and seeing nothing wrong in suppressing free speech via cancellation of those with whom they disagree.
In time, when this generation takes power, they will undoubtedly undermine our democratic society by attempting to implement these insane policies, and they will probably succeed. However, in the long term they will achieve nothing, as those despotic regimes which do not subscribe to such foolishness will eventually overwhelm a West which insists on contemplating its own navel, instead of defending its erstwhile values, and they will then put an end to all this nonsense. Unfortunately it will also mean an end to democracy.
Kent Messenger - 8th December 2022
I used to believe that the political class of the late 1930s, with the honourable exception of Churchill, and his allies, was the worst ever inflicted on these islands, but I am afraid that those with whom we are now burdened exceed even the former for incompetence, selfishness, and ineptitude. They are incapable of giving a straight answer to a straight question. If one asked during a downpour "Is it raining?" they would require to consult their spin doctors before replying, and they are trained never to answer "No", or "Yes" to anything. The vast majority are only interested in advancing their own careers, and only seem animated when attacking their supposed political opponents, who actually share the same attitudes. Many are still trying to reverse Brexit, ignoring the democratically expressed will of the people, so that they may have opportunities to obtain obscenely well paid sinecures in Brussels.
The government seems unwilling to take any sort of effective action: against the spoilt brats of Extinction Rebellion, as they block our roads; against the large number of illegal immigrants invading Kent, pressurising an already crumbling infrastructure; or against the lunatics of woke as the latter indoctrinate our younger generations at schools and universities. They wring their hands over the absurdities of the 'trans' lobby, but do nothing to stop the drugging, and mutilation, of children in the name of a specious equality for a tiny minority. We learned only this week that the Greens in Belgium are blocking the export to the UK of materials necessary to maintain our nuclear deterrent. Why on Earth is such a vital matter reliant on foreign supplies?
Promises are made, and then deferred, or cancelled altogether, while policies announced, which will not be actual acted upon until years into the future. Given the need to secure our own domestic supplies of energy why are we not ignoring the nonsense of net zero, refilling the gas storage areas, introducing fracking, reopening the coal mines, and going all out for tidal and nuclear power, rather than leaving our people to shiver during power cuts? The absurd virtue signalling by these parliamentary pygmies is nauseating, as they fail the people time and time again. On the 2nd September 1939 the patriotic, and anti-appeasement MP, Leo Amery, demanded that Arthur Greenwood, speaking for Labour, should "Speak for England" against the vacillating Chamberlain. Where now is someone of that calibre to shame the politicians into putting the country and its people first?
Perhaps it is too much to hope that any individual can reverse the tide. The greatest condemnation of a similarly contemptible set of politicians was uttered by Cromwell in April 1653, when he dismissed the Rump. It is too long to quote in full, but even parts make clear the appropriateness for our current age:
"Ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government. Which of you have not bartered your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth? Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation. You were deputed here by the people to get grievances redressed, are yourselves become the greatest grievance. Go, get you out! Make haste! Ye venal slaves be gone! In the name of God, go!".
Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 2nd December 2022
As is true of its associated term 'liberal', the word 'progressive' has come to be regarded, particularly by the BBC, as unquestionably positive, yet neither deserves such a label. Where once progressives were fighting such evils as slavery, savage punishments out of all proportion to the offences, and the exploitation of children, the natural tendency of human beings to take things to the ultimate has resulted in previously worthy ideals becoming extremist, and dangerous.
Progressive ideas in education have undermined traditional methods, resulting in a diminution in achievement, encouraging youngsters to place their wants above their needs. The influence of progressives on the justice system, once necessary to end the absurdly harsh punishments of the nineteenth century, have led to today's total failure to make sanctions fit the crime, exposing decent people to becoming victims who are preyed upon by criminals.
The absurdities espoused by this vociferous section of our society leads to the gains of the true progressives of the past being thrown away, as, for example, the advances for women won by feminists in the last century being reversed by the hysterical lobby regarding the claims of transexuals, a vanishingly small part of the population. Those who think it progressive to allow thousands of illegal immigrants to invade this country have no sympathy for the working class, who see their chances of decent employment undercut by those who will take lower wages, while putting even greater pressure on employment, the NHS and housing.
Progress means more than just change, as the latter can, and often is, for the worse. Overthrowing the old order in France at the end of the eighteenth century unleashed a reign of terror, as did the Bolsheviks in the Russia of 1917, while one wonders how many of those who enthusiastically supported the toppling of the Shah would now regard the Islamic regime oppressing the people of Iran as a better system of government.
Of course, there are many areas where change is necessary, but it is nauseating to see the arrogant claim to the moral high ground made by those who think this type of virtue signalling makes them an example for others. They should be treated as the parasites they are, sacrificing women, workers, and the law abiding, in order that they might look good to their fellow hypocrites.
Kent Messenger - 1st December 2022
In 2016, when the result of the Brexit referendum became clear, an anonymous senior civil servant was reported as saying 'it will never happen'. He was proved wrong de jure, but de facto he may yet be proved correct, as those who refuse to accept a democratic decision persist in doing all they can to prevent it being properly implemented, regardless of the wishes of the British people.
The majority of politicians loved being a member of the EU, as it opened up for them personally a route to obscenely well paid sinecures in the European Parliament, where they could strut their little hour upon a wider stage, without overly concerning themselves with nuisances like representing constituents.
The bureaucrats were even more fond of the EU as, should they be able to secure a post in the latter's monstrous bureaucracy, they would be guaranteed large salaries, and the power to implement whatever they wished, as no effective democratic oversight would exist.
The EU is corrupt, incompetent and undemocratic, yet still what Lenin called 'useful idiots' in the UK seek to tangle us once again in its web. This vociferous minority seize upon every economic problem to claim that it is all the fault of Brexit, despite the fact that the EU is enduring worse. They are either consciously ignoring, or unconsciously incapable of understanding, that those who voted to leave were not motivated by economic issues, but by the recognition that they were losing control of their democracy, and being ordered around by those in Brussels who could not be voted out, as is the case with Westminster.
However, we can see that the siren voices are attempting to draw us back towards the situation which existed before the referendum, whether by sly suggestions that we adopt a Swiss style relationship with Brussels, rejoin the single market, or go the whole hog, and return with our tails between our legs.
Had those of us who resolutely opposed EU membership been able to secure a true parliamentary majority, not one founded on unreliable Tory MPs, we should have by now fully escaped the dead hand of Brussels, and be enjoying the fruits of freedom. As it is the selfish elites, who have never really accepted that the British people want no part of the EU, are well on their way to betraying all the hopes of Brexit so that they might benefit, whatever the cost to the rest of us.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 25th November 2022
The Ancient Greeks understood humanity better than most and the expression "Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad" is derived from their writings. They would have recognised how much this applies to our society today as the political, bureaucratic and cultural elites have all lost their minds.
The Labour and Liberal Democratic parties abandoned ordinary citizens some years ago, preferring to put the interests of almost anyone before those of the majority, whether by elevating the claims of sexual minorities to be the only acceptable view, or favouring those who have no connection to this country over the indigenous population. In this they have been joined by the Conservative party, which, in an insane pursuit of the dubious theory of man-made climate change, are leaving millions in dire fuel poverty, while ignoring our domestic resources. Any generation before this would have totally rejected the lunacy of the so called 'trans' lobby, and the criminal activities of Extinction Rebellion, and others, would have been stopped by firm and decisive action, yet supposed conservatives seemed to have forgotten that the majority of the population are heterosexual, of European background, and quietly patriotic, proud of their country, and its past.
The bureaucrats are ruining the NHS, and large numbers of civil servants are declining to be persuaded to return to work. In all the years I worked for the Civil Service a refusal to come in the office would have resulted in dismissal, but this weak minded government just wrings its hands. Nothing is done about the takeover of our universities by the woke, who are turning them into centres for brainwashing youngsters into hating their own country, deriding its past and believing rubbish such as "Men are Women". The manner in which bureaucrats now undermine policies espoused by democratically elected representatives is a scandal, and the apparently orchestrated attempts to eject ministers with unproven accusations concerning their behaviour is a disgrace.
Culturally the humourless obsessives, not content with attacking Shakespeare, Milton and other literary greats, have now turned their attention to the great works of Puccini, Verdi and even Mozart. The cancellation of anyone who does not accept their moronic views is destroying free speech, and they are ably assisted by a police force which Orwell would have recognised as the Thought Police.
The answer to all these lunatics should be to tell them to shut up, to refuse them the oxygen of publicity, and to eject them from positions which they are using to advance their foul opinions. These failed elites must be replaced by those who believe in the ordinary people, and in the country, but the omens are not good, as too many just shrug their shoulders, rather than taking a stand.
Decent people must wake up before it is too late.
Kent Messenger - 24th November 2022
Humanity faces a number of crises which, if not addressed, will eventually put an end to our current civilisation. These include the depletion of resources, such as rare elements vital to technological advancement, pollution caused by the discarding of updated products adversely affecting the environment, particularly the oceans, the need to change in the long term to new methods of generating energy, the mass movement of people across the globe, and the increasing ageing of the population.
However, all of these, and other problems, have one fundamental cause, which is not being confronted, and that is the relentless growth in the number of humans on this planet. According to the UN the total reached eight billion on Tuesday of last week, increasing from two and a half billion in 1950, and just over four billion in 1974. Even thorough the rate of increase has slowed a little, projections would mean that, in the next 3,000 years, the entire mass of the Earth will have become human bodies, and in less than 10,000 years the latter would equal the entire mass of the visible universe of at least 100 billion galaxies. Clearly neither result is possible.
Thomas Malthus, the 18th-century British philosopher and economist, is famous for the Malthusian growth model, an exponential formula used to project population growth. This stated that food production will not be able to keep up with growth in the human population, resulting in the four horsemen of the apocalypse, plague, famine, war, and death, riding forth. Of course, he was unaware of the massive advances in food production which have taken place in the centuries since he conceived the theory, and we have so far managed, just, to avoid the disaster he predicted. Nevertheless, the basic principle that an unlimited rise in human population was unsustainable over the long term is valid, and the effects are becoming ever most serious.
We have two choices, increase the death rate, or decrease the birth rate, and obviously the second method is the most preferable. However, there are cultural, and political problems concerning the such a course. As a Catholic I fully support a ban on abortion, except in very particular circumstances, such as saving the physical life of the mother, but I feel that the equivalent ban on contraception is out dated in our crowded world, a view clearly shared by many members of the Church, given that the enormous families of the past are no longer the norm. Nevertheless, this is not true in some other religions as, for example, conservative Islamic leaders have openly campaigned against the use of condoms, or other birth control methods, thus making population planning in many countries ineffective. Due to the fact that the most significant increases in population are in less developed countries in Asia and Africa there is also the attitude taken by many on the Left that to ask third world countries to limit population growth is racist, as it amounts to the West attempting to dictate a course which they have not observed for themselves in the past. Also, because of a high infant mortality, families in poor countries have created large families in the hope that at least some will survive until adulthood.
However valid the reasons may be a failure to reduce the birth rate massively will inevitably mean that the realities of existence will eventually lead to a massive increase in the death rate, as there is a limit to total human population which cannot be wished away. This is the issue which should be concerning us all, not dubious theories about fossil fuels, or woke nonsense about long gone colonialism.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 18th November 2022
As a young man working in London I frequently attended performances at the ENO, while my wife and I have also patronised the Donmar theatre on many occasions. Now, after the takeover of the National Trust by the woke, the same thing has happened to the Arts Council, which has decided to cut off money to these venues, thus ensuring their demise, while transferring funding to organisations which meet with the approval of the left liberals now dominating our society. Over 2 million pounds is to go to the Headlong Theatre, whose artistic director has described Henry V as the pinnacle of white supremacy, and toxic masculinity, saying that 'I felt like I'd discovered the dirty, murky roots of English nationalism' Clearly this woman has, in Churchill's words, been 'very loosely educated' as the play is about two nations which were both overwhelmingly white, at a time when males were the governing class.
Nearly 1,500,00 pounds is to go the Artichoke Theatre whose recent projects included a billboard saying 'Hey Straight White Men, Pass the Power', while the Discover Children's Story Centre staging a Drag Story Time for children aged three to seven is to receive nearly 200,000 pounds. Music Action International is getting a third of a million pounds, yet this is an organisation which has criticised immigration policy, and described the Rwanda plan as brutal. How dare these people, receiving money from the National Lottery, take such biased positions on political matters. One can imagine the reaction from the liberal establishment if the money were directed to the Conservative party.
How much longer are we going to tolerate these people burrowing away in every public and charitable body, undermining this country, and insulting all of us who do not subscribe to their narrow, bigoted philosophy? It is obviously time for root and branch reform of the Arts Council, as well as of the National Trust, and indeed of any organisation now infested by such ideas.
Kent Messenger - 17th November 2022
At a time when ordinary people are facing tax rises, and spending cuts, the political elite of this country are actively supporting the demands of other countries for financial compensation for the UK's supposed sin in being the first industrialised county. This despite the fact that the major polluters, China and India, are not even at the climate conference, with the former emitting more carbon dioxide in the past eight years than the UK has since 1750. In any case this insistence that we wear a hair shirt is contingent on the dubious theory that any sustained warming of the Earth's climate is due to action by humanity, a complete fallacy.
The vociferous advocates of this theory claim that they are following the science, but they are merely choosing one possible cause of warming over another. At the risk of boring readers with statistics, just over one hundred years ago the Yugoslavian physicist Milutin Milankovic suggested that there was a cycle in global weather that produced seasonal changes, measured in millennia, which moved the Earth through a 'Great Spring' 'Summer', 'Autumn' and 'Winter', caused by variations in the Earth's orbit, coupled with changes in the axial tilt. The latter leads to the 'precession of the equinoxes', taking place over 25,000 years, while the former combines with it to create an overall cycle of about 100,000 years. Empirical evidence suggests the truth of this theory and, according to Milankovic, we are now at the start of the 'Great Summer', with the next ice age arriving about 50,000 years from now. Nothing humans can do, or not do, can change this in any way, unless the environmentalists have some secret method for altering these cosmic cycles.
Of course, the proponents of man-made warming have the advantage in that a slogan of 'Just Stop Oil' is much easier to use that 'Adapt to the Milankovic cycles', as the latter echoes the sort of complicated messages delighted in by the Chinese Communist Party. Also, as that evil man Joseph Goebbels said, 'If you tell a lie big enough, and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and military consequences of the lie.'.
If people come to realise that the actual consequences of tamely accepting the fashionable theory of man-made climate change are disastrous, then perhaps the insanity currently determining energy policy can yet be reversed, while the idea of reparations can be squashed. Naturally this will never be accepted by the hysterical obsessives of 'Extinction Rebellion' etc., who are incapable of understanding anything more complex than their own simplistic propaganda. They are acolytes of an apocalyptic cult, which is completely divorced from reality, and, as they block roads, should be treated as criminals, not heroes.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 11th November 2022
The left liberals, enthusiastically supported by the biased BBC, having successfully driven Boris Johnson from office, have now turned their attention to driving out Suella Braverman, one of the few politicians who actually speaks for the majority of the British people. She has shown courage, and determination, in not being silenced by those who refuse to recognize that what is going on in the Channel is indeed an invasion, and that those who choose to break the law in this manner are being rewarded, not sanctioned. She has earned the hatred of the so called liberals, who are actually racist, by her refusing, as a member of an ethnic minority, to be treated as a victim, and declining to be supportive of their policies, which they believe all 'right thinking' minorities should applaud, but which exist solely to make themselves feel that they are so virtuous.
The people who are getting into small boats are not fleeing a country at war, but France, a safe haven, yet almost all the commentating treats them as akin to those refugees filling the streets of Belgium in 1940, pursued by the Nazis. In jumping the queue for processing they are actually obstructing relief for genuine refugees, such as the Ukrainians, who are indeed being driven out by tanks and guns. It now appears that the majority are coming from Albania, a candidate country for entry to the EU, and one with no internal conflict. If their cases are so valid then let them try legal routes of entry, not taking part in criminal activity to elbow their way to the front.
That we do not have enough doctors, houses or jobs to satisfy the demands of these economic migrants is ignored by the metropolitan liberals. Perhaps were all those arriving in this way transferred to the rich enclaves of North London, such as Islington, rather than working class areas in Teesside and elsewhere, the pressure on the local infrastructure in the prosperous localities would provoke a change of heart among such selfish people, who are always lecturing others while protecting their own privileges.
Given the propensity of the new Prime Minister to bend before any storm provoked by the idiots of social media it may be that this campaign to undermine Suella will succeed, and Ms Braverman be relegated to the backbenches. If so perhaps she should consider breaking with the Conservatives, and leading a movement to reverse the insanity which now grips our so called elites on so many issues, from immigration, free speech and the nonsense of net zero carbon emissions. At the very least it should ensure a split in the Conservative party between those who give a jot for the interests of the ordinary people, and those who seem to care only about virtue signalling. She would make a fine Prime Minister.
Kent Messenger - 10th November 2022
Having successfully driven Boris Johnson from office the left liberals, enthusiastically supported by the biased BBC, have turned their attention to driving out Suella Braverman, one of the few politicians who actually speaks for the majority of the British people. She has shown courage, and determination, in not being silenced by those who refuse to recognize that what is going on in the Channel is indeed an invasion, and that those who choose to break the law in this manner are being rewarded, not sanctioned.
The people who are getting into small boats are not fleeing a country at war, but France, a safe haven, yet all the reporting treats them as akin to those refugees filling the streets of Belgium in 1940, pursued by the Nazis. In jumping the queue for processing they are actually obstructing relief for genuine refugees, such as the Ukrainians, who are indeed being driven out by tanks and guns. It now appears that the majority are coming from Albania, a candidate country for entry to the EU, and one with no internal conflict.
That we do not have enough doctors, houses or jobs to satisfy the demands of these economic migrants is ignored by the metropolitan liberals. Perhaps were all those arriving in this way were transferred to the rich enclaves of North London, such as Islington, rather than working class areas in Teesside and elsewhere, the pressure on the local infrastructure would provoke a change of heart among such selfish people, lecturing others while protecting their own privileges.
Should this campaign to undermine her succeed, and Ms Braverman be relegated to the backbenches, perhaps she should consider breaking with the Conservatives, and leading a movement to reverse the insanity which now grips our so called elites on so many issues. At the very least it should ensure a split in the Conservative party between those who give a jot for the interests of the ordinary people, and those who seem to care only about virtue signalling. She would make a fine Prime Minister.
Clearly Suella incurs the wrath of the so called liberals, who are actually racist, by her refusing, as a member of an ethnic minority, to be treated as a victim, and assumed to be supportive of their policies, which exist solely to make themselves feel that they are so virtuous.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 4th November 2022
The new Prime Minister seems a pleasant person, but unfortunately he is also a prisoner of the sort of establishment, centrist orthodoxies which have done so much damage to this country, and now threaten its future. I agree that it is important to address financial problems, but not at the expense of everything else. I was raised under rationing, and the family did not have central heating, double glazing, a telephone, or a car until I was 21. I have seen the economy go up and down over decades, and we are still here, and much better off than we were in the 1940s. However, we could lose everything if we ignore those things which could destroy our nation.
Defence policy is a case in point, as we are told that Mr Sunak does not intend to increase spending on the Armed Forces. This at a time when the totalitarians of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are growing increasingly threatening, and the USA is descending into a political crisis where violently polarised opinions are making her a doubtful ally. Thanks to our nuclear weapons we are probably safe from Putin's H-bombs, but we will soon have an army which would not fill Wembley stadium, the Russian Navy will be able to sweep aside what is left of the British Fleet, and the Russian Air Force, without ever escalating to a nuclear exchange, could fill the skies with drones and missiles, armed with conventional explosives, but nevertheless deadly, daring us to use the deterrent in the absence of nuclear attack.
On energy Mr Sunak has just reinstated the ban on fracking, a process which has transformed the energy position for the USA, but which we will now ignore. Politicians of all parties have wasted the lead we once had in nuclear energy, while making an island floating on oil, and with large reserves of gas available via fracking, dependent on renewables. I agree that in the long term we must move to the latter, but it is madness to attempt to do this in the short term, and this policy has made us reliant on foreign supplies, which can be cut off at any time, particularly in wartime. The arrested adolescents of 'Just Stop Oil' etc. seem to be able to block our roads, and damage old Masters in art galleries, without the full force of the law being applied against them.
On social matters, such as women's rights, and free speech, the government seems intent on pursuing policies which are totally ineffective. Regarding the former, the number of people in this county genuinely being what is described as 'trans' is vanishingly small. I do not want them to be discriminated against, but their cause is now undermining the hard won rights for which women fought, and some died, over a century or more. That J K Rowling is being subjected to abuse, and threats, for opposing all this nonsense is, as Ralph Fiennes says, disgusting. On the latter issue what is going on in our universities, in business, and in the media, concerning the suppression of free speech, not only about the above mentioned 'trans' issue, but also directed at anyone who believes that this country has had a fundamentally positive effect on the world, is absurd. The ridiculous assertions made about historical figures, such as the greatest ever Englishmen, Churchill, are totally unacceptable. Given its failure to oppose the lunatics of woke the Conservative party would be more honest were it to change its name to the Social Democrats, leaving the field clear for a proper right of centre party to offer truly conservative policies to the people.
Of course, the opposition is even worse on these issues, but where does that leave the ordinary voter?
Kent Messenger - 3rd November 2022
The American political system, with its rigid division of powers, devised in the late 18th Century, has worked fairly well over the years until recently, when the aggressive polarisation of the country, coupled with an increasingly disregard for democracy, is putting it under severe pressure. In the UK we rather smugly believed that our parliamentary system, with the executive also being part of the legislature, was superior, but we see that we were mistaken, as a large number of MPs now treat their own interests as being much more significant than any consideration of the public good, or the political decisions taken at elections by the people.
In June 2016, the EU referendum, the greatest test of democratic opinion ever undertaken in this country, determined that it was the will of the people that we should leave the EU, but a large number of MPs from the main parties, who did not wish to end rule from Brussels, attempted to overturn the choice made, and it took several years, and changes in Prime Ministers, to finally achieve what is even now not a full break.
Having lost their first attempt at destroying Brexit, these irreconcilable Remainers, largely from the Conservative party, managed to undermine the man they most blamed for their failure, Boris Johnson, with nonsense about cake, despite he being the one candidate with a popular mandate. Now they have prevented him returning to power, even though polls showed that he was the most popular choice to succeed Liz Truss.
We are in a situation where MPs are disrespecting the views of the electorate, and treating the interests of the country with contempt, as they seek to preserve their own jobs. Without allowing their party membership a vote, they have foisted upon the country a multi-millionaire, who lost a contest for the leadership only a few weeks ago, and who will no doubt be summarily ejected if the dissidents decide that he is not guaranteeing their continued occupation of their parliamentary seats. These people talk about the 'great talents on the back benches', yet they know that they would struggle to find such well paid employment in the real world. Senior Ministers are using a revolving door of posts, and playing musical chairs, while the country is in crisis.
Given its failure to oppose the lunatics of woke the Conservative party would be more honest were it to change its name to the Social Democrats, leaving the field clear for a proper right of centre party to offer truly conservative policies to the people.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 28th October 2022
I realise that Steve Barrass is being sarcastic, but it is nonetheless true that Brexit is in peril, not from the markets, but from the irreconcilable Remainers who infest our elites. He is also totally wrong if he believes that returning to the incompetent, corrupt, and declining European Union is the answer to our woes. The political and financial chaos which is afflicting the UK is not an indicator that we are unique, nor an outlier in the Western world, but that we are merely the precursor to what is about to engulf us all.
We have been living in a period of cheap money, and absurdly low credit rates, which were, and are, unsustainable. While, at the time of the 2008 crisis, it was necessary to resort to massive quantitative easing, the politicians have continued to use it as an easy way of avoiding the necessary changes to the Western economies, thus laying the groundwork for the inflation which now threatens everything, made much worse by the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. Now we are trying to wean ourselves off the gas and oil under the control of Putin, while as yet still not turning away from reliance upon cheap goods from China. The Western political and bureaucratic elites have made us dependent upon Russian energy, and Chinese manufacturing, with no thought for the morrow, when these weapons we have so casually handed our enemies will be used against us.
Certainly the Conservative party in this country has shown itself unfit to govern, but the disaster will soon manifest itself right across Europe, as the bureaucrats of Brussels fail to even understand what they are facing. The position in Italy is dangerously unstable, while both Germany and France are on the brink. As the crisis which has been brewing in the Eurozone finally goes out of control the effects on democracy will be dire. We will face governments of the extreme Right and Left replacing those which will be perceived to have failed, and the situation which existed before the Second World War will arise again. If I were Jewish living on the Continent I would now be looking to escape to Israel, the USA, or the UK, before it is too late, as the search for scapegoats will target, as it always does, those innocent and unfortunate people.
This state of affairs is due to the incompetence of the elites who have led us to this disastrous pass, and they stand condemned for what they have done.
Kent Messenger - 27th October 2022
The political and financial chaos which is afflicting the UK is not an indicator that we are unique, nor an outlier in the Western world, but that we are merely the precursor to what is about to engulf us all.
While, at the time of the 2008 crisis, it was necessary to resort to massive quantitative easing, the politicians have continued to use it as an easy way of avoiding the necessary changes to the Western economies, thus laying the groundwork for the inflation which now threatens everything, made much worse by the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. We have been living in a period of cheap money, and absurdly low credit rates, which were, and are, unsustainable.
To this is added the manner in which the Western political and bureaucratic elites have made us dependent upon Russian energy, and Chinese manufacturing, with no thought for the morrow, when the weapons we have so casually handed our enemies will be used against us. We are now trying to wean ourselves off the gas and oil under the control of Putin, while as yet still not turning away from reliance upon cheap goods from China.
Certainly the Conservative party in this country has shown itself unfit to govern, but the disaster will soon manifest itself right across Europe, as the bureaucrats of Brussels fail to even understand what they are facing. The position in Italy is dangerously unstable, while both Germany and France are on the brink. As the crisis which has been brewing in the Eurozone finally goes out of control the effects on democracy will be dire. We will face governments of the extreme Right and Left replacing those which will be perceived to have failed, and the situation which existed before the Second World War will arise again. If I were Jewish living on the Continent I would now be looking to escape to Israel, the USA or the UK before it is too late, as the search for scapegoats will target, as it always does, those unfortunate people.
This state of affairs is due to the incompetence of the elites who have led us to this disastrous pass, and they stand condemned for what they have done.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 21st October 2022
I was raised to consider the police to be the friends of ordinary people, there to protect us from criminals and thugs. As a youngster I found this to be true and later, as an adult I met many policemen, when playing in teams against them at various sports, such as golf, tennis, squash, football etc. Now retired I know a number of former officers as fellow members of our bowls club, and play against one of their teams twice a year.
Now however George Orwell's great dystopian novel 1984 is taking shape around us, not least in the rise of an actual Thought Police, monitoring not merely the actions, and speech of people, but even their thoughts. We increasingly hear of instances where our modern police force is taking upon itself the task of, as one of its officers said when harassing Harry Miller, a retired member of the force, who had dared to question the consensus on gender, "I'm here to check your thinking."
Dame Victoria Sharp, DBE, KC the President of the King's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice in England and Wales, ruled that, "The recording of non-crime hate incidents is plainly an interference with freedom of expression, and knowledge that such matters are being recorded and stored in a police database is likely to have a serious 'chilling effect' on public debate." More recently, a judgement handed down in an employment appeal tribunal ruled that gender-critical beliefs, including the belief that sex is immutable, and not to be conflated with gender identity, was a protected philosophical belief. Yet despite the fact that these legal victories made clear that such beliefs are perfectly lawful, officers still persistently trample over freedom of speech, and even the law, in the name of trans rights.
In May, His Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Andy Cooke, made clear that the police were not to act as a thought police, and that chief constables needed to "avoid politics with the small p", follow the law, and remember that "different thoughts" are not an offence. In July 2022, the Chief Executive of the College of Policing warned that the police should stop wading in to spats on Twitter, and focus on solving crime. Nevertheless, the willingness of the police to defy a number of recent legal rulings and go after critics of transgender ideology continues.
Recently Caroline Farrow, a mother-of-five who is married to a Catholic priest, was accused of harassment and malicious communications, and has criticised Surrey Police after officers "swooped on her home and arrested her in front of her children" over a series of allegedly "malicious" posts on chat board KiwiFarms, which she denies writing. As she says "I have been arrested for what was a twitter spat about gender issues." The police involved confiscated Ms Farrow's electronic devices, including one used by her autistic daughter for home schooling purposes, and she was subjected to the indignity of a body-search, then being held in a cell for several hours. We should all reflect on the truth that, in 2022, an innocent wife and mother could be treated in this manner by police who clearly see themselves as above the law.
I find it hard to believe that, unless something very dark has happened, ordinary coppers, who frequently put their lives on the line against violent criminals, agree with these sort of violations of free speech, but it may be that there is something very "Rotten in the State of Denmark" as far as the senior echelons are concerned. The problem is not incompetence, but an increasingly clear political bias, fuelled by lobby groups like Stonewall. A Labour government would clearly exacerbate the problem, as Sir Keir Starmer seems unable even to define what constitutes a woman. This sort of behaviour by the police, clearly ultra vires, is more than disgraceful, it is the canary in the mine warning that, unless something is done, all decent people face a fate like that of Winston Smith in Orwell's novel.
Kent Messenger - 20th October 2022
I am sure that many people will have seen demonstrations by "Stop the War" which purport to be against those who promote conflict, but perhaps they may also have noticed a strange absence of such events in relation to the war in the Ukraine. While on their website they claim to be opposed to Putin's actions they link this with a claim that is NATO's desire to expand that is the root cause of the war, rather than the imperialistic ambitions of a despot.
The reason for this is not hard to find, as such groups have a tunnel vision, in which the nations of the West, particularly the USA, the UK and Israel, are always the villains. When undemocratic regimes around the world are causing conflict there are always apologists, who will find reasons why the real warmongers are the aforementioned nations.
In the days when Labour was devoted to democratic socialism, it issued lists of proscribed organisations, whose aims were not compatible with those of the party. Indeed, to his credit, Sir Keir Starmer, in an article in the Guardian, said "The likes of the Stop the War coalition are not benign voices for peace. At best they are none too bright, at worst they deliberately give succour to authoritarian leaders who directly threaten democracies. There is nothing progressive in showing solidarity with the aggressor when our allies need our solidarity and, crucially, our practical assistance now more than ever".
We have always been afflicted by those who prefer to support anyone but their own country, for reasons of which are hard to understand, but which indicate that they extremely gullible. Before the Second World War we had those who, like George Bernard Shaw, who expressed admiration for Stalin, and others who appeased the Nazis. During the Cold War we endured decades of propaganda, marches and demonstrations by those whose aim was to undermine western defences, from CND, founded by Bertram Russell, to the Greenham Common women, who were either active fellow travellers, or naive beyond belief.
As the valiant Ukraine people fight back against Putin, and missiles rain down on their cities, many will remember when Tariq Ali was, in March 1968, one of the leaders of those protesting against the USA in Grosvenor Square, and he is now a leading figure in "Stop the War". Where are the sort of marches we saw during the Vietnam war, when the American Embassy was the target? Why is the Russian embassy not now similarly treated? Obviously because these people still sub consciously, and stupidly, see Russia as a beacon of the world revolution, rather than a nation in the grip of a Russian imperialist. I doubt that Ukrainians watching their cities bombed, and loved ones killed believe that it is all the fault of the West.
Next time ordinary, well meaning, people consider supporting "Stop the War" they should reflect that they will be helping what is no more than a far left fringe group, which will always excuse our enemies, and condemn our friends.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 14th October 2022
Liz Truss, far from being an heir to Margaret Thatcher, has shown herself to be in the long line of Prime Ministers who bend with the wind, and retreat at what Napoleon described as the first whiff of grapeshot. In so doing she has already undermined any claim by the new government to be resolute in the face of opposition, and doomed the country to continue its decline into irrelevancy.
It is now obvious that Conservative MPs are increasingly likely, just as the case with the irreconcilable Remainers, to refuse to accept the results of a democratic vote, and to undermine whoever attempts to lead. Michael Gove is a serial plotter, while social liberals such as Penny Mordaunt would be better suited to be members of the Liberal Democratic party, but it is those backbenchers, seemingly constantly itching to submit letters calling for a leadership contest, who are destroying the party. Indeed, those who are not motivated by personal ambition are Social Democrats, not Conservatives. Thanks to them, we are on a course to return to the dead end policies beloved of the left wing consensus, as it looks almost certain that the Labour party will win the next general election with a large majority.
We will face a government whose economic policies, based on a magic money tree, will ensure continued decline. Undoubtedly women will discover that so much which they have gained over the past hundred years will be negated by the liberal left's insane desire to put the welfare of a vanishing small sexual minority over the interests of the former, as we endure a Prime Minister who cannot even define what constitutes a woman. Defence will be further cut back, at a time when the totalitarians are a growing menace, and a pursuit of a woke agenda will undermine our society in the name of so called egalitarianism. The Remainers will insist that we once more place ourselves at the mercy of the unelected and corrupt bureaucrats of Brussels, thus negating the greatest expression of democratic will in our history, and we may also expect almost unlimited illegal immigration, which the Labour party will not even try to prevent.
The blame for this betrayal of the interests of the majority of the ordinary people should be laid at the door of those pygmies on the Tory backbenches, who will no doubt find themselves deservedly unemployed following the election. Clearly, as the Conservatives become more and more like the Liberal Democrats, there is a desperate need for a democratic party of the centre Right to represent the interests of the ordinary people by restoring economic stability, and eschewing the increasingly hysterical policies of those who seem to think that men are women, Britain is responsible for most of the ills of the world, and that our history should be treated as something of which to be ashamed, not proud.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 7th October 2022
The establishment, in the form of the Treasury, and the Bank of England, has been wedded to a mistaken orthodoxy for many years, and is unwilling to admit that our economic woes are due to their support of a consensus which has prevented the country from pursuing policies which would have protected our prosperity, rather than undermining it.
I recall that when my wife and I first bought a home we were paying a mortgage rate of above seven percent, a figure that reflected the norm before rates were reduced to those we have seen in recent years, something which has encouraged people to take on excessive liabilities, while denying savers any effective return on their money. Add to this the fact, if a government were to print money so that they could hand everyone a million pounds, it would not allow the latter to enjoy the lifestyle of a millionaire, but would devalue the currency to the point where a cup of tea would cost a hundred pounds. The combination of maintaining interest rates at absurdly low levels, together with a massive expansion in quantitative easing has put us in a dire position which requires a radical change of direction.
The hysterical reaction to the government's economic measures owes less to any objective assessment of same, and far more to political prejudice. The usual suspects of irreconcilable Remainers, the BBC, the left wing press, and the economic illiterates of the Labour party, are condemning the only policies which can reverse the otherwise guaranteed decline of our economy.
It is the failure to educate the public as to economic realities which has helped lead us to this pass. We should remember the minister in the last Labour government who delighted in saying, as they left office, that there was no money left, while the hundreds of so called economists who wrote a letter attacking the Thatcherite reforms, were proved to be completely wrong. We trust their successors at our peril.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 30th September 2022
In his assessment of the energy crisis Rick Wotton lists problems associated with the current methods used to generate power, but is vague about the details of renewables. The latter may indeed offer hope for the future, but are nowhere near being available in sufficient quantities to solve the short term, or even medium term, shortages, which would result from rushing to abandon reliable fossil fuels.
Of course his underlying assumption is that changes in climate can be directly attributable to human activity, and that therefore we must change our ways to survive. This is however a theory which is not universally accepted by scientists, and which has been hijacked by environmental extremists, who will admit no reasoned debate on the subject.
Earth has existed for over four billion years, and human civilisation for only a few thousand, and any examination of the climate record shows that the latter has varied widely over geological timescales, quite independently of any action on our part.
Given that eventually fossil fuels will become exhausted we must seek to develop energy generation from sources such as nuclear fusion and sun power, but we are decades away from being able to do so.
If we are to avoid blackouts, and a massive decline in our ability to maintain our civilisation, we must continue to use those resources available now, and not make the mistake of throwing the baby out with the bath water.
Kent Messenger - 29th September 2022
The ten days of mourning, and the funeral, for our dear Queen, showed that the vast majority of the British people, despite all the efforts of the nay sayers, remain the same as those who saw us through the wars of the last century.
We have endured decades of propaganda from the so called intellectual class, who, as always, hate everything good about our country, and delight in falsely claiming that we count for very little in today's world yet, when the chips are down, they are exposed as no more than self indulgent and shallow.
The faultless performance by the Armed Forces on the day makes clear that they retain the values which make them the best in the world, and the organisation by the Duke of Norfolk puts the useless managerial class in this country to shame.
The attack by L D Goddard on my comments concerning the woke was totally predictable, as he seems to feel that the latter should be given full publicity for their opinions, at the same time as they try to suppress the views of their opponents. If he read my letter properly he would see that I did not say that these people should not voice their opinions, but that the latter should not be given the coverage they always seem to enjoy in the media. After all there are idiots who still claim that the Moon landings did not take place, or that they have fairies at the bottom of their garden, but they do not appear in the headlines.
Of course the woke are, and should be, free to express their views, but they should be treated as the extreme minority opinions they are, not worthy to be compared to those they treat with such contempt.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 23rd September 2022
In the last words that Holmes ever addresses to Watson he says "Good old Watson! You are the one fixed point in a changing world", and this is something that could also be said about our much mourned Queen Elizabeth II. She was never afraid of innovation, and was instrumental in transforming the monarchy to adjust to the modern world, yet in those matters which abide, and are truly important, she was steadfast. As the last significant link to the great Second World War generation she represented duty, courage, faithfulness, and a stoic endurance of the worst, in order that the best should ultimately triumph.
Thanks to our careers in the administrative sector of the Church my wife and I had the honour of meeting Her Majesty at the time of the Silver Jubilee, and later attending a palace garden party, and we can attest to the fact that she was expert at putting people at their ease, and showing an interest in their lives. She was a truly great lady, a devout Christian, and an example to all in how to behave.
Although we shall never see her like again the new King is cut from the same cloth, and offers a certain hope that her legacy will continue. The monarch, by standing about the political fray, provides a calm centre to our national life, preventing by their very presence the possibility of any sort of demagogue becoming a dictator, or some democratic, but divisive figure, becoming President. In the face of the blandishments of the vociferous republicans we should indeed be foolish to throw out an institution which has served us so well, and which, in the form of a constitutional monarchy, provides a template for governance which billions around the word envy.
The Queen has gone, but, as we mourn, we can still look to a stable future under King Charles III, and his heirs.
God save the King.
Kent Messenger - 22nd September 2022
Many years ago I took an A level course in British Constitution, and one of the things said by the lecturer which I remember most vividly concerned the position of the monarch. It was that, quite apart from other positive aspects, the mere existence of an individual at the apex of the judiciary, the Armed Forces, and indeed the entire State, prevented any other from assuming such offices, and that, provided that the monarch was non-partisan, no sector of the political spectrum could take control of the country.
The Queen was always neutral when political storms blew, and could be looked to for reassurance as politicians ranted. It is inconceivable that a President Edward Heath, Tony Blair or Boris Johnson would have been welcomed as the calm centre of the country's life by the vast majority that regards the monarch as the mother, or father, of the nation.
My wife and I, by virtue of our careers in the administrative arm of the Church, had the honour of twice meeting the Queen, at the time of her silver jubilee, and later at a palace garden party, and can testify to the manner in which she treated everyone as worthy of her notice, and put them at their ease. She was a great lady, a true Christian, and the rock upon which the country relied to survive the worst storms. King Charles is cut from the same cloth, and we would all be intensely weaker should the small minority of republicans, who, to paraphrase Shakespeare's Macbeth, offer sound and fury signifying nothing, were to get their miserabilist way.
God Save the KIng
Kent and Sussex Courier - 16th September 2022
Although I am not a member of the party I feel that the Conservatives deserve praise for the diverse nature of appointments to senior government positions, as all of the great political offices are now held by females, or representatives of ethnic minorities, or in some cases both.
While the opposition parties often make extravagant assertions as to their supposed moral superiority on such matters as racism and sexism, in practice they do not fulfil such claims. Left-wingers believe that they have a right to the support of those they describe as oppressed, and are incensed when they discover that, in the real world, they fail to secure such.
It is quite noticeable that many who do not come from the majority ethnic group actually hold views very much at variance with those espoused by the Left, as a result of not suffering from liberal white guilt, and of recognising that this country is in fact one of the most tolerant and inclusive in the world. The fact that the bulk of Conservative supporters do not have any problem in accepting the elevation of those now in charge of major ministries shows that the accusations directed at the party of being unwilling to move with the times are untrue.
Kent Messenger - 15th September 2022
At a time when the British people are mourning the death of our beloved Queen it is nevertheless no surprise that the ignorant, bitter, armchair warriors of social media should post negative comments concerning her reign, and denigrate the contribution that she made to our national life over so many years.
In times past this sort of person would have to have been content with shouting their abuse from street corners, but now they crouch over the computers in their bedrooms spewing forth their bile. They should be treated with the contempt they deserve, and the media should cease to report on their foul opinions, as they only seek the oxygen of publicity.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 2nd September 2022
As the energy crisis deepens the ordinary people of Britain are now paying the price of successive administrations paying attention to the adolescents and obsessives of the Green movement, in preference to ensuring that we have enough power to meet all our requirements.
This country pioneered atomic energy, yet we now supposedly must rely on foreign expertise in order to revive the sector, fracking has liberated the USA from dependence on Middle Eastern oil, but we allow extremists to prevent the exploitation of our own similar resources, while the North Sea can still supply enough gas if we continue to develop the fields available. In addition we have reserves of coal which would last for decades, if not centuries. We have neglected to store sufficient reserves of gas to meet emergency demands, leaving vast facilities totally unused.
Sensible people know that in the long term we must switch to solutions which do not rely on finite sources, and that nuclear fusion, sun, and indeed tidal power, can provide these, but instead we pretend that unreliable windmills can substitute for the fossil fuels upon which we must rely.
The Greens are on the retreat worldwide, as nations turn nuclear fission stations back on, seek new means of obtaining gas and oil, and even begin to restore coal mines, yet still our elites, in hock to ludicrous theories about climate change, refuse to do the same. As the chickens come home to roost it is becoming ever clearer that to give support to those who would rather we retreated to the caves than use the resources available has been a disaster, and the new Prime Minister would be well advised to take immediate steps to place the needs of the public above the desires of a small, vociferous group of those determined to have their own way, whatever the cost.
Kent Messenger - 1st September 2022
Peter Stanley is quite correct in his condemnation of the creation of non jobs, but this latter is only one symptom of the malaise which now distorts the workplace in Britain, and is a consequence of incompetent, and prejudiced decisions taken by those who have dominated our public life for generations.
When I left my grammar school in the 1960s only a small proportion of my fellow pupils went on to university, the majority entering various professions, but at the bottom of the rung, gradually working their way up over years, so that when they became senior managers they knew the organisation properly. The result of Tony Blair's decision that at least fifty per cent of youngsters should go on to tertiary education was that those without sufficient academic ability, or indeed interest, have been processed through much inferior universities, and emerged with an expectation that their paper qualifications should exclude them from performing the basic tasks which constitute the preponderance of those required. There is obviously a reluctance among those who have paid large amounts for their degrees to take on what they consider inferior duties, so those areas of essential work are short of willing employees. At the same time the interests of those who, in the past, would have gone on via apprenticeships to provide the plumbers, electricians, building workers etc we need, have been neglected, due to the fact that politicians, most of whom went to university, regard such employment as in some way unworthy. Ironically Mr Blair's son is trying to rectify this, but the paradigm is against him.
Having produced so many graduates the politicians have sought to create jobs supposedly worthy of the qualifications, so have created the kind of non jobs Mr Stanley criticises, who act as a burden, not a benefit to the country. Over the past few years we have seen the growth of a managerial culture which has taken over most of the public sector, and indeed much of private industry, to the detriment of the economy and against the interests of the vast majority of the population, who are excluded from this magic circle but suffer the consequences of their actions. That non profession HR insinuates itself into so many commercial bodies, insisting that workers conform with ridiculous policies, seemingly designed to reduce, rather than increase productivity. This sort of interference was once confined to over zealous Health and Safety officials, who extended their activities from protecting those involved in hazardous tasks to imposing absurd restrictions where none was required. Worse are the myriad of people now employed as so called diversity consultants, who add nothing to the organisation, but merely create the divisions they claim to be addressing.
We now watch those in charge of major utilities, such as water, and energy, stumble from one crisis to the next, despite being paid obscene salaries, completely out of line with the vast majority of their staff, receiving massive golden handshakes and golden goodbyes, and enjoying payoffs even when they have failed, and who appoint each other to these lucrative positions, with no thought for the effect their selfish greed has on the country. That most have no knowledge of the organisations they infest but merely bring a supposed 'managerial ability' to them causes endless problems and destroys the very expertise which once distinguished such bodies. We need those with railway engineering experience in charge of the railways, and engineers who know what they are doing in control of the major utilities, if we are to overcome the major problems with which we are confronted.
Everywhere one looks there are hard working people making every effort to do their jobs, while being hamstrung by these managerial parasites. Unless politicians take action the latter will totally undermine the economy with their greed.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 12th August 2022
The reason that your correspondents such as Steve Barrass, and Sam Goodenough deride popularism is obvious, as the majority opinion of the British people has always been opposed to the so called progressive and liberal views of those who like to consider themselves the great and the good. The latter like to think that they know better than the common herd, and indulge in the groupthink engendered by sitting at the feet of Marxist professors in our supposed seats of learning. Those who live in areas with high rates of crime are not versions of Dickens' Madam DeFarge, sitting at the foot of the guillotine, baying for blood, but ordinary people who prefer the penal policy of Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado, in which the punishment fits the crime, rather than seeing those who prey on them treated with the kid gloves advocated by psychiatrists. Those, living in deprived areas, who oppose open door policies on immigration are not all closet members of the National Front, but people who see that there are insufficient jobs, homes and GPs for the current population, and resent the fact that illegal immigrants are usually moved to their communities, not to the privileged areas inhabited by North London intellectuals. Those who showed good sense in voting to end the control of this country by Brussels bureaucrats are not xenophobes, but believers in our representative democracy.
This domination of social policy by left liberals is compounded by the activities of those pressure groups who are given far more leeway to attempt to impose their particular views on us all than is ever justified by the causes they espouse. This is typified by the Greens, who are like watermelons, green on the outside, but red on the inside. Wherever they have achieved any political power one can be sure that they will ally themselves with the extreme left, as they are in fact the heirs of all the absurd intellectual philosophies, such as Marxism, which have done us so much harm. When these elitist ideologues came to accept that they would never achieve control through the ballot box, they instead managed to convince well meaning, but gullible idealists into thinking that their demands are reasonable, when in fact they are not, and the ordinary people are left to face a loss of their freedom to travel, or to warm their homes, in the name of a theory many do not accept as valid.
One of the worst of these groups are of course the woke, in particular those imbeciles attempting to override basic biological facts, and to limit free speech. Fortunately there is now a fightback with the Attorney General, Suella Braverman, saying that she intends to confront the radical progressive agenda coming to dominate Whitehall, banning any more diversity courses imposed on her staff, and describes these fanatics as "Like the witch-finders of the Middle Ages, donning the outfit of the inquisitors, and never tire of rooting out unbelievers". More power to her arm, as these people, and the lunatics of social media who support all this woke rubbish must be opposed at every turn if we are to restore sanity to our society.
Kent Messenger - 11th August 2022
The comments made by Christopher Hudson-Gool about irreconcilable Remainers are absolutely correct. The latter remind me of schoolboys who, when having lost a game of football in the playground, stamp their feet, claim that they were cheated, and refuse to accept the result. They are like Violet Elizabeth Bott, from the Just William stories, who, when thwarted would lisp "I'll thcream and thcream 'till I'm thick". Their supposed devotion to democracy vanished once it became clear that they were in the minority, and they will never give up whinging until the EU finally disappears altogether.
Typical of their attitude is the sarcastic letter from Michael Charles, whom seems unaware that the arrival from a clear blue sky of a global pandemic derailed everything, while the return of armed conflict to Europe, coupled with the insane decisions by countries such as Germany to rely on Russia for energy have undermined the entire world economy. The manner in which Western governments have swallowed whole the propaganda of the environmental extremists have prevented sensible policies being implemented, and have nothing to do with Brexit. What too many do not realise is that the Greens are like watermelons, green on the outside, but red on the inside. Wherever they have achieved any political power one can be sure that they will ally themselves with the extreme left, as they are in fact the heirs of all the absurd intellectual philosophies which have done us so much harm, particularly the Marxists. When these elitist ideologues came to accept that they would never achieve control through the ballot box, they instead managed to convince well meaning, but gullible idealists into thinking that their demands are reasonable, when in fact they are not.
Those, such as myself, who were opposed to EU membership from the outset, have cause for complaint, is that the government has not seized the day as it should have done. The influence of the EU bureaucracy, manifested by the activities of their closet supporters in the Civil Service, the media, and self opinionated members of the entertainment industry, has so far prevented a full Brexit being implemented. This must be done, if we are to reap the full benefits, and I am, as Mr Charles says, to get what I deserve.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 5th August 2022
It was predictable that the green lobby would hail the recent heatwave as proof positive of man-made climate change, yet this ignores the reality. While the top temperature reached, in one small area, for a short time, appears to be slightly higher than recorded in the past, there have been other comparable events which occurred long before the hysteria over climate change was even a gleam in a fanatic's eye.
Quite apart from the long, hot and dry summer of 1976 there was a heatwave in 1911 which had all the features of the recent one, although then lasting two months, not a mere two days. The railway lines buckled, while the more than a dozen fires in London this time is eclipsed by the fifty-one on a single day in 1911. Early in August of that year one newspaper described the temperature as unbearable, even in the shadiest of places.
We do not live on a planet with a static climate, but on one which has always been dynamic, switching from tropical conditions worldwide to a lengthy period as a frozen snowball. Those who claim that the current apparent warming is all the fault of mankind might like to reflect on certain facts. This may not be a change which lasts for long, while, even if it proves more lasting, it is just as likely to have been caused by natural processes quite independent of human action.
For us in the UK there is an even more pertinent question. When we produce about one per cent of the greenhouse gases demonised by the environmentalists, why are we to sacrifice so much to make so little difference. Those of us who cannot afford electric cars, and even those who can, will face ever growing restrictions on our ability to drive, while we are to risk blackouts, and freezing homes in winter, because the vociferous green lobby is standing in the way of us utilising fracking, gas reserves, and coal, in favour of ineffective renewable sources of power such as windmills.
We should continue to develop new energy sources, such as nuclear fusion, tidal generation, and broadcast sun power from satellites, but until these are ready we should continue with the reliable fossil fuels, although our own where possible, not relying on imports from dangerously vulnerable places such as Russia.
Kent Messenger - 4th August 2022
It is no surprise that the virtue signalling left liberals refuse to learn the most basic lesson from the martyrdom of the Ukrainian people. At the time of the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 the latter voted by over ninety two per cent to become an independent nation, which made them the third most powerful nuclear armed state in the world, with over 1700 weapons, including ICBMs. However, rather like Belgium in 1914, they put their trust in signatures on a treaty, which the German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg contemptuously described as 'a scrap of paper'. In 1992, Ukraine signed the Lisbon Protocol, and it joined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear weapon state in 1994. The transfer of all nuclear material took some time, but by 2001, all nuclear weapons had been transferred to Russia to be dismantled, and all launch silos decommissioned. The Russians undertook to abide by the terms of that agreement, which would preclude any military action against Ukraine, but now we see just how worthless were their promises.
Does anyone in the right mind believe that, had Ukraine kept its nuclear weapons, Putin would have risked invading their country, yet even now the supporters of unilateral disarmament for this country remain dedicated to such a suicidal policy. Back in the early days of CND those who were not actually fellow travellers of Moscow were gullible and naive, thinking that peace could be secured by throwing away our best means of defence, and relying on the goodwill of our adversaries. Despite what has happened in the Ukraine these people still have no understanding of human nature, as their policies would not bring peace, but appeasement, and surrender.
This persistent stupidity brings to mind the quote from Jeremiah "Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not." If, as seems possible, the USA were to tire of paying for Europe's defence, and retreat to Fortress America, and we were to be so foolish as to abandon our nuclear defences, we would then be faced with the threat of losing our cities one by one, unless we submitted to our totalitarian enemies.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 29th July 2022
One of your correspondents writes of 'a shamelessly populist vote', while another refers to 'a wave of popularism', treating the words as being unquestionably pejorative, when in fact they are the opposite. Populism refers to political stances that give priority to the ideas of the people, usually juxtaposing them against those of the elites. Collins Dictionary defines those who deride such ideas as intellectual snobs whose narrow minded perspectives prevent them from appreciating anything that is labelled 'populist' . It is true that Boris placed himself on the side of the majority, but that is no reason to criticise him, as, in a democracy, the will of the people is supposed to take precedence.
To attack him for his reaction to Covid beggars belief, as this once in a century emergency was unprecedented in peacetime, and it doubtful that anyone else could have done better, particularly in respect to sourcing the essential vaccines. Perhaps worst of all is to suggest that his policy towards Putin's aggression was based on a desire to act as a latter day Churchill, rather than a revulsion at the actions of a modern day Hitler. One can imagine what the response of a Labour government led by Corbyn would have been.
Now we have once again the situation where a Prime Minister, supported by a large majority at the last election, has been ejected by Conservative MPs. The latter have offered as a replacement those committed to the kind of centrist policies which are undermining this country, while rejecting the true radicals such as Suella Braverman, and Kemi Badenoch, who could have saved their party from defeat at the next general election.
I find myself in agreement with your other correspondent Michelle Rivers concerning those who toppled Boris, but, rather than refusing to ever vote again, I will be forced to turn once again to a smaller party in the hope that it can emulate the success of UKIP in defying, and eventually overturning the status quo supported by the arrogant elites who dominate public discourse.
Kent Messenger - 28th July 2022
As usual the Remainers featured in the latest issue make unsubstantiated, and unjustified statements claiming that Brexit is a disaster, when in reality it saved us just in time from permanent submergence in the bureaucratic and undemocratic state being constructed in Brussels. These people remind one of the story of ostriches burying their heads in the sand to avoid predators, although in the latter case this is merely a myth.
Have these people not noticed that Italy, already in deep financial trouble, is about to be plunged into another general election, which is expected to produce a government led by a party of the very far right, an heir to the fascists? That President Macron of France is reduced to attempting to govern with a parliament run by his opponents, his attempted appeasement of Putin being a source of shame to the French? That the legacy of Merkel in Germany is a country facing an energy crisis because of the insane decision to abjure nuclear power in favour of relying on Russia for fuel supplies?
Many of the countries of Eastern Europe, who joined the EU in the belief that it would be a democratic bulwark against the sort of state dictatorship from which they had escaped with the end of the cold war, now realise that Brussels has a similar mindset, albeit without the more overt features of coercion. Some are openly defying the diktats of the European Commission, and are set on a course which will lead to their leaving the EU.
That supposed symbol of a brave new world for European integration, the Euro, is now in free fall, approaching parity with the dollar, while the crisis of immigration from the third world, again provoked by idiotic decisions made by Merkel, increases every day, and is instrumental in the move to the far right in Italy.
We should ignore the bleating of the defeated Remainers, and be grateful that the good sense of the British people triumphed over the selfish wishes of the elites, and turn all our energies to the task of rebuilding Britain as a proud, sovereign country, free of interference by unelected bureaucrats.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 22nd July 2022
Although I write this just after the Thursday ballot of Conservative MPs, and may be proved wrong by events, I fear that, as so often, they are set fair to disappoint in their choice of a new leader, this being confirmed by their rejection of Suella Braverman, a staunch supporter of the UK breaking with the EU, with views of the way in which the problems facing the country should be addressed being totally sound.
Of the front runners Rishi Sunak has his good points, yet he now proposes economic policies which contradict what he has been implementing since becoming Chancellor. However the main objection to his candidacy is that the Conservative party must be mad to think that a multi millionaire could appeal to Red Wall voters, as the Left would ensure that it was constantly pointed out to working class voters that he can have no conception of what it means to be poor, or in need of employment.
Penny Mordaunt, although attempting to row back her previous statements, is committed to many of woke ideas which are doing so much damage to our country. Women who wish to preserve the rights for which they have fought for so long, would be unwise to support someone who said, while women and equalities minister, that "trans men are men, trans women are women", and published a LGBT action plan, as an ally of Stonewall, proposing more teaching of trans issues in schools. In addition her much vaunted military connections are undermined by statements from a retired Army officer that she failed, during her time as armed forces minister, to protect British troops subjected to Iraq war crimes witch hunts.
Liz Truss now talks a good game, but, at a time when those such as myself were advocating leaving the EU, she was against any such policy, and her apparent conversion must be open to some doubt, and, while my local MP, Tom Tugendhat, is a decent chap, whose support for the Armed Forces is of great significance, is not the radical who could restore support to the party.
From the start the best choice was between Suella Braverman, now foolishly rejected, and Kemi Badenoch. The latter, as well as being a genuine supporter of Brexit, has stood up to the lunatics of woke in espousing the rights of women, and in defying the undermining of our society by these imbeciles. Her election would effectively shoot the foxes of the Left, given that accusations of racism, sexism, or of merely being from a privileged background would be absurd, while she has the courage of her convictions, and is prepared to defy the left liberal consensus which dominates so much of contemporary society.
Nevertheless, I am afraid that, in the end, the Conservative party will not be brave enough to make such a bold choice, but will instead go for the usual sort of centrist, who will undoubtedly lead the party to defeat at the next general election. I hope that I am wrong, but the party has always, with the exceptions being when the country was in extremis, been its own worst enemy.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 15th July 2022
The heart of the Conservative party has always belonged to leaders such as Baldwin, Chamberlain and Ted Heath, and the mavericks like Churchill, Thatcher and Boris have been tolerated for a while, but, with the exception of Winston, whose greatness even the most weak willed could not deny, they were eventually cast aside, despite the support of the electorate. Of course, this has been made worse in recent years by the arrogant and totally biased behaviour of much of the media, in particular the BBC, whose relentless pursuit of Boris represents an indelible shame upon those supposedly tasked with eschewing prejudice in their reporting.
Boris forced though Brexit against the determined opposition of the elites, who have never accepted the will of the people, made vaccinations available immediately it was possible, and led the democratic world in support for Ukraine. Against this he ate cake, and over indulged a sleazy drunk. That he should have been forced out over such inconsequential nonsense is a disgrace.
Do those who ousted him really believe that the working class voters of the Red Wall had suddenly become supportive of Conservative policies? As one who has spent much time in areas such as Teesside I can assure the former that it was Boris, and his defiance of the metropolitan acolytes of Brussels that inspired that vote, and it will crumble away now that the Conservative party has demonstrated once again its ability to stab in the back those, however successful at elections, who do not subscribe to the sort of compromising weakness beloved by career politicians. Ordinary people are not stupid, as those who live in the Westminster bubble clearly believe, and they could see that the EU was the pinnacle of that bureaucratic edifice, represented in the UK by the senior civil service, large corporations and financiers, who preferred that democratic accountability should be overridden so that the selfish interests of their class could reign supreme.
If a candidate such as Suella Braverman, or Ben Wallace, were to succeed Boris then there might yet be hope, but the balance of probability is that it will be some either overt, or closet Remainer, who will make this country once more a vassal of the EU. It is likely that those ingrates who stabbed Boris in the back will find themselves out of parliament, or at least consigned to years on the opposition benches, but unfortunately the triumph of the bureaucrats, and of the liberal left, will damage this country, possibly beyond repair.
Kent Messenger - 14th July 2022
On the credit side Boris forced though Brexit against the determined opposition of the elites, who have never accepted the will of the people, made vaccinations available immediately it was possible, and led the democratic world in support for Ukraine. On the debit side he ate cake, and over indulged a sleazy drunk. That he should have been forced out over inconsequential nonsense is a disgrace.
Do those who ousted him really believe that the working class voters of the Red Wall had suddenly become supportive of Conservative policies? As one who has spent much time in areas such as Teesside I can assure the former that it was Boris, and his defiance of the metropolitan acolytes of Brussels that inspired that vote, and it will crumble away now that the Conservative party has demonstrated once again its ability to stab in the back those, however successful at elections, who do not subscribe to the sort of compromising weakness beloved by career politicians.
The heart of the Conservative party has always belonged to leaders such as Baldwin, Chamberlain and Ted Heath, and the mavericks like Churchill, Thatcher and Boris have been tolerated for a while, but, with the exception of Winston, whose greatness even the most weak willed could not deny, they were eventually cast aside, despite the support of the electorate. Of course, this has been made worse by the arrogant and totally biased behaviour of much of the media, in particular the BBC, whose relentless pursuit of Boris represents an indelible shame upon those supposedly tasked with eschewing prejudice in their reporting.
If a candidate such as Suella Braverman, or BenWallace, were to succeed Boris then there might yet be hope, but the balance of probability is that it will be some either overt, or closet Remainer, who will make this country once more a vassal of the EU. It is likely that those ingrates who stabbed Boris in the back will find themselves out of parliament, or at least consigned to years on the opposition benches, but unfortunately the triumph of the liberal left will damage this country, possibly beyond repair.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 8th July 2022
This country, and indeed the entire developed world, is sleepwalking into a trap, the results of which could be as catastrophic as a nuclear exchange, as we place more and more of our vital infrastructure at the mercy of the world wide web, thereby putting all our eggs in one basket.
Consider the situation which would arise if our energy networks, water supplies, communications and banking systems all failed simultaneously, and permanently, as it would lead very rapidly to economic collapse and anarchy. This could occur in the space of a day, as a major solar flare would destroy the satellite network, and most of our electronic technology, but fortunately such an event only takes place every few hundred years, and one is not due until the 23rd century.
However, as a species, we are quite capable of visiting this disaster upon ourselves, by the instigation of a cyber war, where malicious, probably state controlled attacks, could bring down the entire global network. Quite apart from the risk of such an attack releasing nuclear weapons the consequences for our delicately balanced civilisation could be almost beyond imagining.
For the first thirty years of my career we more or less successfully ran our affairs without the widespread use of computers. Indeed, when I joined the work force we had no electronic calculators, photocopying was by use of chemical, and very messy, copiers, and we still relied on the ability of employees to use arithmetic to maintain ledgers etc. It would not be necessary to return to those days, but the only safe course now is to cease to tangle all our services in one giant web, but rather to limit systems to individual requirements, so that to take down one institution would not result in all failing.
The loss of social media would not be important, except to children obsessed with their use, but to lose control of everything would be an unmitigated calamity. Nevertheless, I fear that we are now so addicted to this technology that we will continue to intertwine these vital systems until one day their failure brings down our modern world.
Kent Messenger - 7th July 2022
I agree with Prince Charles, and Alan Gleave, that the history of slavery should be an important part of the educational curriculum, provided that it is taught objectively, and not merely from the position that Britain is somehow the exclusive villain. This evil practice has existed throughout much of human history, and those civilisations of classical times, such as Greece and Rome, which we are encouraged to admire, were built upon the backs of slaves.
Even looking at the age of colonialism and empire it should be remembered that, not only was almost every major nation involved, but that among the worst of those exploiting human misery were the Arab nations, who were notorious as slave traders, while very many African slaves were in fact sold to the slavers by their own leaders. It is also true that English people, prisoners of war, and those taken from our shores by raiders, endured a subsequent life of slavery, while it was the Royal Navy, at a cost of many ships and men, who finally swept the slaving ships from the seas.
There is a major difference in this subject, and that of the horrors of the Holocaust, in that there are still alive many who were either perpetrators, or victims, of this horrifying Nazi crime, while those who suffered directly from slavery are now figures from history. We obviously sympathise with what the latter endured, but the Britain of today cannot be held responsible, any more than we would expect Italy to atone for the sins of the Roman Empire.
Of course, those who are most vociferous in their condemnation of our past are like Orwell's sheep in Animal Farm, who mantra of "Four legs Good, Two legs bad" precluded any rational debate, as was its intention. The left liberals, or 'woke', metaphorically chant "Britain Bad, Opponents Good", whatever the subject. I have no doubt that Prince Charles is a decent, well-meaning man, whose angst on many subjects is clear, but he should be careful not to identify with the agenda of those who hate their own country, as the British people do not take kindly to being constantly lectured about the faults of their ancestors, while the good this nation has done is ignored. As our future King he should follow his mother's example, and remain above the fray, else he risks undermining the affection which our monarchy currently inspires.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 1st July 2022
There can be no doubt as to the relevance of a question which is becoming more and more central to the world, that concerning the mass movement of peoples across the globe, and in particular for us in the UK. At one end of the argument would be a halt to all immigration, on the other a free for all, with no limits imposed, and where the line is drawn is of increasing importance. In the modern world a full stop would be impracticable, as well as immoral, as those fleeing in fear of their lives must be given hope of a refuge. To open the door entirely would, apart from provoking a massive adverse reaction among the indigenous population, very quickly reduce the host country to chaos, and economic destruction. We have tried to compromise with limits applied, yet valid refugees being welcomed, in particular those from areas, such as Ukraine, where conflict is taking place.
As we contemplate the situation provoked by the ruling from European Court of Human Rights concerning flights to Rwanda it is obvious that Britain has effectively ceased to be a democracy.
Despite the fact that the people voted in the EU referendum, and at the 2019 general Election, to take back control of our country, particularly its borders, a combination of activist lawyers and left wing judges, domestic and foreign, have prevented the implementation of the government's policy aimed at stopping illegal immigration across the Channel.
Thousands of primarily economic migrants are fleeing France, a safe country, in order to jump the queue of those genuinely seeking asylum, ironically in breach of the international laws which their accomplices are so keen to claim should be paramount. No other Western country, in particular the United States, allows foreign interference in their affairs, while others threatened by such unrestricted migration, such as Australia, stem the flow by using a system similar to that proposed by the UK.
It is clear that the vast majority of those coming across on small boats are young men, albeit accompanied by a much smaller number of women and children. In addition, interviews with those arriving reveal that a majority are coming from countries which are not being subject to violent conflicts. These facts make clear that the bulk of these migrants are in fact motivated by economic factors, and should therefore be taking their place with those who are taking the legal route to claiming asylum, not being allowed to jump to the head of the queue. It should also be noted that they will have been paying considerable sums to criminals, indicating that they are not destitute, while they are coming directly from France, a country not considered dangerous, and where they should be claiming asylum.
I have no doubt that to dare to question the left wing consensus on the issue risks mendacious accusations of selfish nimbyism, but the middle class activists crying crocodile tears over the issue should perhaps reserve their sympathy for their own compatriots in depressed areas, particularly in the North, who see their slim chances of decent employment compromised by tens of thousands of people prepared to accept lower wages, at the same time as we are enduring a lack of such vital services as GPs, and sufficient housing stock.
Kent Messenger - 31st June 2022
Partly as a result of the present government failing to get a grip, but largely because of decades of such failure, the power of unelected bureaucrats in this country has grown to the point where our elected representatives are unable, or at least unwilling, to reign them in. Despite the massive setback these functionaries suffered when the people demanded that the UK end rule by their fellows in Brussels, they continue to dominate large sections of our society, in particular the public services.
The work of the clinical staff in the NHS is, as always, to be applauded, but overall the organisation resembles nothing so much as a Soviet style directorate, run for the benefit of unnecessary, vastly overpaid managers, aided and abetted by their HR departments, and in which anyone who dares to question their worth is treated as an enemy to be suppressed. The enormous sums made available by the government are being wasted in paying even more pointless apparatchiks, and offer little benefit to the staff actually treating patients, or to the latter themselves. The government's supposed effort to deal with this have foundered, as the man, on paper apparently a good choice to investigate, has clearly been captured by the lobby which places their beloved EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion), above providing the best treatment for the sick.
In education, particularly at a higher level, the administrators have embraced woke dogmas, and are distorting the entire sector in pursuit of their absurd beliefs. Professors have tried to fight back but even Cambridge, one of our supposed senior universities is becoming a laughing stock, due to the determination of these ideologues to force it to become a centre of their new secular religion.
Unfortunately, this regulatory nightmare is true of much of the private sector, as that non profession HR insinuates itself into so many commercial bodies, insisting that workers conform with ridiculous policies, seemingly designed to reduce, rather than increase productivity. This sort of interference was once confined to over zealous Health and Safety officials, who extended their activities from protecting those involved in hazardous tasks to imposing absurd restrictions where none was required, but these latter have now been overtaken by the apostles of HR.
Everywhere one looks there are hard working people making every effort to do their jobs, while being hamstrung by these managerial parasites. Unless the government takes action the latter will suffocate the economy with useless red tape.
Kent Messenger - 23rd June 2022
As we contemplate the situation provoked by the ruling from European Court of Human Rights concerning flights to Rwanda it is obvious that Britain has effectively ceased to be a democracy. Despite the fact that the people voted in the EU referendum, and at the 2019 general Election, to take back control of our country, particularly its borders, a combination of activist lawyers and left wing judges, domestic and foreign, have prevented the implementation of the government's policy aimed at stopping illegal immigration across the Channel.
Thousands of primarily economic migrants are fleeing France, a safe country, in order to jump the queue of those genuinely seeking asylum, ironically in breach of the international laws which their accomplices are so keen to claim should be paramount. No other Western country, in particular the United States, allows foreign interference in their affairs, while those threatened by such unrestricted migration to stem the flow are using a system similar to that proposed by the UK.
However there can be no doubt as to its relevance to the question which is becoming more and more central to the modern world, that concerning the mass movement of peoples across the globe, and in particular for us in the UK. At one end of the argument would be a halt to all immigration, on the other a free for all, with no limits imposed, and where the line is drawn is of increasing importance. In the modern world a full stop would be impracticable, as well as immoral, as those fleeing in fear of their lives must be given hope of a refuge. To open the door entirely would, apart from provoking a massive adverse reaction among the indigenous population, very quickly reduce the host country to chaos, and economic destruction. We have tried to compromise with limits applied, yet valid refugees being welcomed, in particular those from areas, such as Ukraine, where conflict is taking place.
When looking at the specifics it is clear that the vast majority of those coming across on small boats are young men, albeit accompanied by a much smaller number of women and children. In addition, interviews with those arriving reveal that a majority are coming from countries which are not being subject to violent conflicts. These facts make clear that the bulk of these migrants are in fact motivated by economic factors, and should therefore be taking their place with those who are taking the legal route to claiming asylum, not being allowed to jump to the head of the queue. It should also be noted that they will have been paying considerable sums to criminals, indicating that they are not destitute, while they are coming directly from France, a country not considered dangerous, and where they should be claiming asylum.
Those crying crocodile tears over the rights of those capable of paying large sums of money to criminals in order to undermine our right to determine who shall be permitted to live in our own country, should reserve their sympathy for their own compatriots in depressed areas, particularly in the North, who see their slim chances of decent employment compromised by tens of thousands of people prepared to accept lower wages, at the same time as we are enduring a lack of such vital services as GPs, and sufficient housing stock. The cultural identity of those protesting in favour of such illegality shows that this is as much as class issue as anything else.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 17th June 2022
When Boris Johnson became PM he was faced with the greatest health emergency for a century, to which he responded well, despite mistakes which were inevitable, given the unprecedented circumstances, and which obviously derailed many government policies. Now, in response to the Russian aggression in Ukraine, the PM has proved to be possibly the most resolute of the Western leaders, as evidenced by the high regard in which he is held by President Zelensky. I doubt any other current political leaders will have streets named after him in Ukraine.
However, many of us who willed Boris to win the domestic struggles which have arisen since the 2016 referendum are now feeling great concern that he is not following through on the promise of better times presented by Brexit. He has not sufficiently departed from EU regulations, while his support of the absurd green agenda, and a failure to stop illegal immigration, plus imposing tax increases at just the wrong time, are all matters which must be addressed if the government is to succeed. The Northern Ireland protocol must be denounced.
In the period following the EU referendum, almost the entire mainstream political class, backed by a broadcast media reflecting the views of the metropolitan elite, made every effort to thwart the will of the people, by effectively trying to negate the vote. It was only thanks to resolute determination on the part of Boris that they were defeated, and Brexit became a reality, reinforced by his massive victory at the last general election. It was deeply satisfying to see some of the BBC commentators, with expressions appearing to indicate that they were chewing on a wasp, obliged to report on the results of both the referendum, and the 2019 election.
Concerns as to the direction the government is taking may have animated a number of the Conservative MPs who voted against him, but we should be in no doubt that the real reason most of those involved voted in such a way was that the pro EU wing of the Conservative party hate Boris for achieving Brexit, and still seek, under the leadership of a Remainer, to crawl back to the rule of this country by Brussels bureaucrats.
If Boris were to go only a true patriot such as Lord Frost would be able to turn things round and certainly the PM needs to get back on course if he is to win the next election, but we should be in no doubt that to replace him with a so called one nation Conservative such as Jeremy Hunt would only ensure that we would once again lose our independence as a sovereign nation, as the peoples' vote for freedom would be ignored by the establishment.
Kent Messenger - 16th June 2022
In the period following the EU referendum, almost the entire mainstream political class, backed by a broadcast media reflecting the views of the metropolitan elite, made every effort to thwart the will of the people, by effectively trying to render the vote to break with the EU null and void. It was only thanks to resolute determination on the part of Boris Johnson that they were defeated, and Brexit became a reality, reinforced by his massive victory at the last general election. It was deeply satisfying to see some of the BBC commentators, with expressions appearing to indicate that they were chewing on a wasp, obliged to report on the results of both the referendum, and the 2019 election.
That Boris as PM was then faced with the greatest health emergency for a century, to which he responded well, despite mistakes which were inevitable, given the unprecedented circumstances, obviously derailed many government policies. Now, in response to the Russian aggression in Ukraine, the PM has proved to be possibly the most resolute of the Western leaders, as evidenced by the high regard in which he is held by President Zelensky.
However, many of us who willed Boris to win through are now feeling great concern that he is not following through on the promise of better times presented by Brexit. He has not sufficiently departed from EU regulations, while his support of the absurd green agenda, and a failure to stop illegal immigration, plus imposing tax increases at just the wrong time, are all matters which must be addressed if the government is to succeed.
These latter concerns may have animated a number of the Conservative MPs who voted against him, but we should be in no doubt that the real reason most of those involved voted in such a way was that the pro EU wing of the Conservative party hate Boris for achieving Brexit, and still seek, under the leadership of a Remainer, to creep back to the rule of this country by Brussels bureaucrats. Boris needs to get back on course if he is to win the next election, but we should be in no doubt that to replace him with a so called one nation Conservative would only ensure that we would once again lose our independence as a sovereign nation.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 10th June 2022
Even as we give thanks for her majesty's seventy years on the throne, there is a tinge of sadness, as we know that it cannot be many more years before the torch is passed to Charles and Camilla. Predictably the gloomy, puritanical republicans are already campaigning for the abolition of the monarchy, with posters attacking members of the Royal family for their supposed failings, conveniently ignoring the fact that so many main stream politicians are guilty of far more significant transgressions. These sullen iconoclasts despise anything which encourages the ordinary people to feel pride in their country, its history and its values, so loath the support that the institution of the monarchy brings to these things.
These people talk as if the monarchy is a financial drain on the nation, as evidenced by one who claimed that the jubilee celebrations would cost every household about 38,000 pounds, when even the BBC admitted that the true cost was approximately 1 pound. Do these people think that the presidents of France, Germany and the USA do not cost their exchequers vast sums? In addition a President Tony Blair, or Boris Johnson, would inevitably lack the kind of almost universal support enjoyed by a hereditary monarch, who sits above the political fray. The Queen, by virtue of being the head of the Armed Forces, the Established Church, the judiciary, and being the head of state, prevents any despot from arrogating such power to themselves, and a constitutional monarch is a bulwark of democracy, as we saw in Spain in 1981 when King Juan Carlos prevented a paramilitary takeover.
Constitutional monarchy has proved to be the most effective, and benign, form of government, but republicans will agitate to change to some sort of presidential system, ignoring the fact that the latter are a recipe for divisiveness, as witnessed now in the USA. For seventy years the Queen has been the quiet epicentre of our national life, providing stability amid the turmoil of the years, and we should all be grateful for her steadfast service, which has protected us against the upheavals which have afflicted so much of the world. That she holds the symbolic power, while the Prime Minister has executive responsibility is the great strength of our constitution .
In Holmes' swan song "His Last Bow" he praises Dr Watson as the one fixed point in a changing age, and, in all things that matter, such as duty, loyalty, patriotism and faith, the same must be said of our Queen. The British monarchy is worth every penny, and we should all give thanks that they exist, and pray that the institution continues into the future. God save the Queen.
Kent Messenger - 9th June 2022
In Holmes' final words to praise to his friend Dr Watson he says "Good old Watson! You are the one fixed point in a changing age", and, in all things that matter, such as duty, loyalty, and faith, the same must be said of our Queen. For seventy years she has been the quiet epicentre of our national life, providing stability amid the turmoil of the years, and we should all be grateful for her steadfast service, which has protected us against the upheavals which have afflicted so much of the world.
Unfortunately in this world no one lives forever, and one day we shall be faced with the end of her reign, which will be the signal for the vociferous minority of republicans to launch a major assault on the whole concept of a monarchy. Despite the fact that a constitutional monarch has proved to be the most effective, and benign, form of government, many will agitate to change to some sort of presidential system, ignoring the fact that the latter are a recipe for divisiveness, as witnessed now in the USA. A President Tony Blair, or Boris Johnson, would inevitably lack the kind of almost universal support enjoyed by a hereditary monarch, who sits above the political fray. The latter, by virtue of being the head of the Armed Forces, the Established Church, the judiciary, and being the head of state, prevents any despot from arrogating such power to themselves, and is a bulwark of democracy, as we saw in Spain in 1981 when King Juan Carlos prevented a paramilitary takeover.
Foolish, uninformed people talk as if the monarchy is a financial drain on the nation, as evidenced by one person on Twitter who claimed that the jubilee celebrations would cost every household about 38,000 pounds, when even the BBC admitted that the true cost was approximately 1 pound. Do these people think that the presidents of France, Germany and the USA do not cost their exchequers vast sums?
The British monarchy is worth every penny, and we should all give thanks that they exist, and pray that the institution continues into the future. God save the Queen.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 3rd June 2022
Although the national print media are known to support various political parties the main national broadcasters are expected to be unbiased. However the belligerence shown by their reporters when speaking the Prime Minister makes clear that they are committed to an agenda resolutely opposed to virtually anything he says. The aggressive, accusatory tone of their questions would be insulting to anyone, let alone someone in authority faced with the responsibility for dealing with some of the most difficult challenges to have arisen for many years.
It is particularly nauseating to see many of these reporters and commentators, such as some from Sky, who have themselves been fined for breaches of lockdown regulations, taking a high handed approach, apparently convinced of their own moral rectitude. Their arrogance is only exceeded by their hypocrisy, and, were I the PM, I would point out that they are ignoring the beam in their own eye. One can only admire his self restraint.
Kent Messenger - 2nd June 2022
I am sorry that Alan Gleave is so ill informed as to the aims of the liberal left that he finds my letter difficult to understand, so I will give details of those issues with which they are obsessed, always to the detriment of this country, and its people.
No decent person would regard slavery with anything but the utmost abhorrence, but to these so called liberals Britain is almost uniquely guilty, and must be condemned for all time. This ignores both the facts that this obscene practice disfigured the world for many centuries before the British Empire existed, and that it could be found in many, many countries. Of course it should never have happened but what is just ignored is that eventually Britain not only banned the trade, but lost thousands of men, and a large number of ships driving the slavers from the oceans. There is no reason for the current population of these islands to hang their heads in shame, unless of course we are to see the same judgements applied to every nation throughout the world, regarding events from classical times onwards.
Another obsession of this section of the chattering classes is the question of 'trans', which has led to feminist icons such as Germaine Greer, and J K Rowling, being demonised for daring to suggest that the rights for which women have fought for decades must be undermined by the demands of a vanishingly small sexual minority, most of whom probably only wish to be left alone, not used as a means for the liberal left to burnish their image as morally superior. The cases where self identified 'trans' men have been found guilty of assaulting women to whom they have obtained access do not seem to trouble the latter.
The cherished principle of innocent unless proved guilty is gradually being eroded by those who assert that an accusation is somehow proof, particularly in relation to claims of sexual abuse. Who would now want to risk being a teacher, scoutmaster or priest when they may be subjected to false accusations, and treated as guilty unless they can prove otherwise.
Ordinary people are increasingly persecuted for choosing to disagree with the fashionable opinions promulgated by the 'woke', to the point where we are supposed to reject much of our culture in case it offends the snowflakes of the universities. The burning of books which contradict the opinions of these self appointed guardians of morality cannot be long delayed.
I don't think we need Mr Gleave to reject other's views merely because he doesn't understand them.
BBC History Magazine - 1st June 2022
I feel that the article concerning Napoleon was unfair to its subject. While his later career saw his original ideals often undermined by the reality of power, he was from the first a believer in the Revolution, as a reading of his letters and general writings make clear.
After his early victories in Italy, he set up the Cisalpine and Ligurian republics, based upon the constitution of the New France, and when he occupied Malta in 1798, he abolished slavery and feudal privileges, while Jews and Moors were given equal rights to Christians.
Although his wars led to a great loss of human life Napoleon was never a monster like those who have disfigured the following centuries, despots like Hitler, Stalin and Putin. He was unquestionably one of the greatest military commanders of all time, and that he did not accept the policies espoused by the extreme Jacobins put an end to their vicious insanities, and in those lands he conquered he attempted to implement reforms aimed at bettering the lot of the ordinary people.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 20th May 2022
Those who, until the local elections, lived in some areas run by Conservative councils, but which are now under the control of the left, will very soon find that there is a price to be paid for giving priority to such nonsense as Partygate.
The new councils will massively increase council tax in order to implement their pet projects, motorists will be subjected to renewed attack, as LTNs are set up, making life difficult for them, and for residents, while money, and attention, will be directed to pursuing a 'woke' agenda, rather than fixing the potholes.
Undoubtedly a number of Conservative councillors deserved ejection, but the electorate will find that they have thrown the baby out with the bathwater. Perhaps the most optimistic view is that, by the time of the general election, the reality of rule by the liberal left will have inoculated many voters against supporting them.
Kent Messenger - 19th May 2022
As usual Ray Duff parrots the propaganda of the selfish, middle class, Left liberal elite, to the detriment of the ordinary workers he claims to champion. I am afraid that Mr Duff must absorb the news with his eyes closed, as even a cursory inspection of the visual record of the boats arriving reveals that probably more than ninety per cent of those on board are young men. This is in complete contrast to the Ukrainians fleeing from the Russians, who are women and children, while their men are staying to fight the aggressors. In addition many of those interviewed after arriving on the beaches admit that they are from Third World countries where no combat is in progress. It is obvious that they are primarily economic migrants, breaking the law in order to jump the queue, and ignoring the fact that they have passed through safe countries on their way to the UK.
Perhaps Mr Duff should reserve some of his sympathy for the inhabitants of British communities in the old industrial areas, who have seen the steel works, mines and shipyards closed, while the Job Centres are full of adverts for training courses, but no jobs. It is a disgrace that the majority of those coming in have been transferred to such areas as Teesside, while the comfortable denizens of prosperous areas such as north London risk no competition for their livelihoods in professions such as PR and human resource management. I suspect that if reception centres were set up in Highgate and St John's Wood, we would soon become aware of squeals of protest from the middle classes.
I suggest that Mr Duff wakes up to the fact that far from being a tribune of the people he is just a dupe used by a virtue signalling elite who care nothing for their own people.
Kent Messenger - 12th May 2022
In the days when religious belief was strong there were many who chose to display their dedication by indulging in forms of mortification of the flesh, whether it be by wearing a hair shirt, chains, or by self-flagellation. In this way those involved demonstrated their virtue to the world, although at a cost to themselves.
Now we have very many white, middle class elitists indulging in virtue signalling, and apparently practising self-flagellation, but in the form of metaphorical sackcloth and ashes, bemoaning the supposed terrible crimes committed by their own country, their own racial group, or those who share their own sexual identity.
Of course, all this comes at no real cost to themselves, as it involves no pain, or monetary penalty, but allows them to parade their piety, and membership of the self appointed caring classes. That the effects on their fellow citizens, who find their way of life, and beliefs, constantly under attack from these hypocrites, is of no importance to them. The universities are undermined, the provision of services distorted by absurd limitations, and the cultural life of the nation treated as a cause for shame, in order that the comfortable, self regarding followers of 'woke' may bathe in the warmth of their own virtue.
It is time that these people were treated as the idiots they are, and totally ignored by decent people.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 6th May 2022
In the past politicians were significant people, after the First World War discussing weighty matters, such as post-war reconstruction, economic development, and female emancipation, while after the Second the major subjects of setting up the welfare state, defending freedom from the Communist threat, and dealing with the end of Empire. During my time in politics I have met, and even, in some instances, sat in committees with many serious politicians, such as Sir Richard Body, Tony Benn, Enoch Powell, Peter Shore, and David Stoddart, and these were MPs who discussed the important issues of the day, while representing their constituents to the best of their ability.
What a change we see today. The Commons sees fit to obsess over such matters as cake, and the feminine charms of Labour's deputy leader, while it seems that some behave in a way, particularly relating to sexual matters, which is an insult to those who elected them. Of course, most MPs are decent, and hardworking, but even these are frequently exercised about things which are not worthy of discussion.
As we enter iron times, with the possibility of war once again a paramount cause for concern it is noticeable that those MPs who have actually served in the Armed Forces are coming to the fore; men such as Ben Wallace, Secretary of State for Defence, and Tom Tugendhat, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, who speak with knowledge about the dangers which threaten us. It is utterly deplorable that the level of debate in the Commons appears to sink to a new low each week, and it is time that MPs looked to those from the past, often themselves veterans of war, as models to emulate. What is going on at the moment is a disgrace, and shows contempt for the electorate, at a time when democracy is in peril in Eastern Europe.
Kent Messenger - 5th May 2022
About one hundred years ago, politicians were serious people, discussing matters such as post war reconstruction, economic development, and female emancipation. After the second war the issues were equally as major, setting up the welfare state, defending freedom from the Communist threat, and dealing with the end of Empire. Now we are treated to the spectacle of MPs ranting hysterically about whether the fact the Prime Minister had cake on his birthday is worthy of police, and parliamentary, investigation.
I hesitate, given the triviality of the matter, to even discuss the ridiculous case put forward by the Left, but, as so many seem to wish to air their views, I think we should look at the facts. Boris was presented with a cake by his fellow workers, with whom he had shared the workspace for months, and he had contact with them for approximately nine minutes. He was not wearing a paper hat, drinking to excess, and kissing everyone in sight, but showing the minimum amount of courtesy to others who wished him well.
If Boris denied to parliament breaking any rules it was because any reasonable person would agree that he was speaking the truth, not having fully appreciated just how low the standard of political debate had sunk. If Conservative MPs now remove him they will be repeating the same mistake they made when they stabbed Margaret Thatcher in the back, and I suspect with the same result. A decade of Labour rule now would finish this country, seeing us abjectly slinking back into that failing monolith the EU, bowing the knee to every fanatic, whether they be woke or green, and undermining our ability to defy the totalitarians. Boris has many faults, as we all do, but to destroy his premiership over such an insignificant matter would be insane.
Kent Messenger - 28th April 2022
How much longer must we endure the disruptive, and illegal activities of Extinction Rebellion, and its associated groups, who are doing so much more damage to our country than any minor infringement for which Boris may have been responsible.
Their whole campaign is based on a false premise, as examination of the historical, and geological record, shows that the climate has frequently varied in accordance with natural factors totally outside any human agency. Amounts of carbon dioxide, which at 0.04% is almost a trace gas in the atmosphere, have fluctuated quite separately from major climate changes, and indeed it increases as a result of warming temperatures preventing the oceans absorbing as much as hitherto, being a symptom, not a cause.
These groups blatantly break the law, making life harder for everyone, and exacerbate the already high costs of energy, yet the hypocritical Left supports them. It is well past time that the police treated them as the criminals they are, and the courts handed down deterrent sentences, instead of judges praising their actions.
By all means reduce our use of finite resources of fossil fuels, but on a sensible timescale, and only when true alternatives such as nuclear fusion are in place. A reasonable date would be 2070, when the latter should be ready, not 2030, which is utterly absurd.
Times of Tunbridge Wells - 27th April 2022
We in this area, and across the South East have been unable to obtain petrol recently thanks to the illegal actions of arrogant Green extremists. We live in a democracy. If one has a cause in which one believes then one can do what we who wanted the UK to leave the EU did. Write and deliver leaflets, put up legal posters, hold meetings, organise marches, and stand for office in elections. What one does not have the right to do is break the law, and disrupt the lives of one's fellow citizens in the arrogant belief that one is occupying the moral high ground. These green fanatics have no right to act as if the law did not apply to them.
Even the briefest study of history proves that climates have changed before man discovered oil or invented the combustion engine. Our planet's climate has a 4.5-billion year history yet man has only recorded our weather since 1861.
The most likely culprits for the regular changes to our climate are variations in Solar output, eccentricities in the Earth's orbit or the effects of the movement of the tectonic plates. That the general public are probably unfamiliar with these theories only goes to show the power of the media who have, in the main, totally brought into a belief in man-made climate change. We are being bullied by scientific illiterates, who base their argument on a totally false premise that Man's actions are responsible for a natural phenomenon.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 22nd April 2022
Concerning the most important issues of the day the Prime Minister is on the side of the majority of the British people. He supported Brexit against the undemocratic liberal left, who sought to overrule the will of the people; he has spoken out against the insane views of those who put the interests of a tiny transsexual minority ahead of the rights of women; is now, with Priti Patel, making a determined effort to stop the flow of illegal immigration across the Channel; and has supported the people of Ukraine both morally and physically, as they seek to defeat the Russian bear.
Nevertheless, hysterical opponents try to force his resignation over the absurd matter of whether he had cake two years ago, ignoring the fact that he has paid the fine as required by law. After all, if one were to pay a fine for a minor offence, would not one expect that to be the end of the matter.
Of course, the attacks are totally politically motivated, largely by that section of society who find it impossible to define what constitutes a woman, something normal people have no trouble in determining. It is a far greater scandal than 'partygate' that the heirs to great Labour leaders such as Attlee and Gaitskill should be so afraid of the woke extremists that they refuse to condemn their imbecilities, and proves that they are truly unfit to govern.
Boris is still too beholden to the environmental fanatics, but fortunately circumstances look set to render the latter irrelevant, as reality once again takes centre stage.
Kent Messenger - 21st April 2022
It is very noticeable that those from the Left who are displaying so much indignation about 'cakegate', declaring that breaking the law is wrong, as indeed it is, radically change their position when it comes to thousands of illegal immigrants arriving on the Kent coast.
Despite a great deal of talk this invasion of our country continues, as thousands, enthusiastically spurred on by the French, arrive across the Channel, adding to the problems we already endure of a lack of a sufficient number of schools, jobs, houses, GPs etc. While one sympathises with those seeking to improve their life chances the potential numbers run into millions, and I think of those parents, particularly in the old industrial areas, who have seen their children unable to obtain decent employment, but who must now watch those with no ties to this nation, undercut wages, and obtain housing which is in such short supply.
The comparison of the reception of Channel boat people, and that of Ukraine refugees is absurd. It is very noticeable that a majority of the former are young men, clearly seeking to better their economic position, while the latter are, thanks to a ban on men leaving, women and children, fleeing bombs and missiles. How can it be right to allow economic migrants to avoid all effective checks when arriving, while at the same time place obstacles in the way of those in immediate fear for their lives? Those who prefer to sanction illegal immigration by those who, even according to the EU, which so many of the liberal left worship, should seek asylum in the first EU country in which they arrive, are displaying double standards. Any who prefer to approve such blatant law breaking over the need to provide refuge to a people in fear of Putin's thugs are utterly deplorable.
Those from the Third World who would like to move to the West represent a bottomless pit, while the people of Ukraine wish only to go back home, once the Russian fascists are gone. The bureaucrats of the Home Office are proving once again that their organisation is not fit for purpose, a reality compounded by the fact that civil servants are still refusing to return to work, despite the fact that so many who provide the services which allow them to hide at home, have been, and continue to be, working normally. The Prime Minister broke the law, has been fined, and paid up, in accordance with that law, which is how our legal system operates. That those who hate him because of his political stance on such matters as Brexit, and the 'trans' issue, demand his resignation based on their supposed respect for the law, yet very many of the same people condone the continued breach of our laws by illegal immigration.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 15th April 2022
Many people in the West have lost all sense of proportion. In the Ukraine Russian troops are using sexual violence as a weapon, with small children being forced to see their mothers raped, while here we see pathetic individuals claiming to be devastated because someone addressed them with what they deem to be the wrong pronoun. A recent news film showed a father and mother murdered in cold blood by Putin's thugs, but endless news columns are devoted to a minor altercation between two Hollywood luvvies. The fanatics of Extinction Rebellion again choose to block fuel supplies over their false claims that changes to climate are manmade, while millions are worried that they will not be able to heat their homes. Idiots persist in harping on about who ate cake when we need to support resolute leadership trying to provide effective support to Ukraine.
As we witness the contrast between the meaningless talking shop of the EU, and the military power of NATO, Remainers prove that they are like the Bourbons who, as Talleyrand said "They had learned nothing and forgotten nothing.", being unable to recognize that the European are too dependent on Russian energy to defy Putin.
It is no surprise that Richard Landholt displays all the arrogance of his soulmates the BBC, when he abandons any effort to debate a subject. The latter decreed some years ago that the science regarding climate change was settled, and so they would not permit those who dispute this to be given airtime, regardless of the fact that there are many in the scientific community who disagree with this lazy consensus. All the time opponents make false claims about the subjects Mr Landolt mentions it is incumbent upon those who differ to offer a rebuttal, otherwise the field would be left clear for such wrong ideas to flourish. No doubt Mr Putin would concur with the idea that no argument should be permitted.
BBC History Magazine - 11th April 2022
The article on 'Dig for Victory' brought back childhood memories of being raised during rationing, although we never felt that we were in anyway deprived. It has left me with legacy of always clearing my plate, of never being fussy about what I eat, and even now of being surprised that so much is available out of season. I also still enjoy currently unfashionable food such as broccoli, parsnips, swedes and cabbage.
The diet we followed in those days was certainly very much more basic that that we have today, but it was healthy, and we did not suffer from the incidence of obesity we now endure, partially because we ate fruit rather than the kind of desserts preferred today.
However we have not learnt our lesson, as we import approximately forty percent of our food, and some advocate increasing this proportion still further. In the event of another major interruption to supplies we should be in an even worse position that we were in the 1940s.
Kent Messenger - 7th April 2022
The majority of those who agree with Richard Styles about car ownership fall into two main categories. Firstly, green obsessives whose hatred of fossil fuels is so intense that they would prefer that we were back in the caves, rather than embrace the modern world made possible by their use. In common with all other puritan fanatics, they hate the idea of people actually enjoying themselves, instead of wearing hair shirts and metaphorically indulging in self-flagellation in support of their monomaniacal cause. They are joined in their opposition to cars by the middle class metropolitan elitists, who live in areas such as North London, where they are served by trains, both overground, and underground, an extensive, and regular bus network, and access to taxis at the drop of a hat. One friend who lives in St John's Wood finds it impossible to relate to those who live in small rural villages, whose cars are the only way they can reach beyond their immediate neighbourhood.
In the past people lived and worked within a very short distance from their homes, with many never venturing more than a few miles throughout their lives. The ubiquitous use of cars has liberated the ordinary person, making it possible to commute for work, and to enjoy a richer, fuller life. This is of course anathema to those who dislike the idea of the working class being liberated from dependence on what they in their bounty may decide to provide in terms of public transport.
There are unquestionably downsides to the use of cars, but, as one who for six years was a volunteer driver, taking old ladies to shops, clinics etc. I am only too well aware of the limitations we would endure if we tried to abandon private transport. Walking and bike riding is acceptable for the physically fit, but only for relatively short distances, while the cost of providing a really effective bus service would be prohibitive.
There is no easy answer, although using our domestic energy supplies would certainly help. Returning to the transport methods used in past centuries would be unfeasible, so car ownership is the only reasonable alternative for those living outside well served urban areas.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 1st April 2022
Valerie Russell says that there is no comparison between Brexit and the war taking place in Ukraine, yet the Ukrainian minister to the UK has stated that he quite agrees with Boris, as both matters concern freedom. One would have thought that if the comment was insulting the Ukrainian minister would hardly praise it. She also asks that someone would explain to her the freedoms Brexit has brought. As those of us who enthusiastically supported leaving the EU constantly reiterate, the intention was to return the effective governance of this country to our elected representatives, removing it from the grasp of appointed apparatchiks in Brussels, and this aim has been accomplished. What we do with our freedom is now up to us.
Anthony Towell extols the virtues of compromise, but of course this depends on the claims of both sides of a dispute having some validity. If one were to demand a thousand pounds of Mr Towell, and he were to, not surprisingly, offer nothing, would he considers parting with five hundred pounds a satisfactory compromise? Putin's demands are sheer blackmail, and must be rejected with contempt.
As usual Tony Sykes confuses the EU with NATO, the former possessing no armed forces, while the UK is the leading military European nation within the latter. He is correct that constant defence reviews have weakened our strength, but this is irrelevant as far as membership or otherwise of the EU is concerned. Of course Mr Sykes cannot resist his usual personal attacks on Boris, regarding matters which are of no consequence, such as who had cake for their birthday.
It is time that people woke up to the fact that we face an existential threat from a renegade, nuclear armed state, and that refighting old battles is a distraction from what must be done.
Kent Messenger - 31st March 2022
In his comments on Brexit Ed McConnell defines what he believes was its purpose, and then says it has not been achieved. However, as those of us who enthusiastically supported leaving the EU constantly reiterate, the intention was to return the effective governance of this country to our elected representatives, removing it from the grasp of appointed apparatchiks in Brussels, and this aim has been accomplished. What we do with our freedom is now up to us.
Mr McConnell derides the comment by the Prime Minister comparing the impulse behind Brexit with the desire of the Ukraine people to run their own affairs yet the Ukrainian minister to the UK, someone whom in other matters Mr McConnell would no doubt rightly applaud, has stated that he quite agrees, as both concern freedom. The so-called fury at the PM's remarks came from the most vociferous Remainers, both here, and abroad, and is hardly surprising, given their slavish allegiance to Brussels.
The answer as to why the other benefits of Brexit are yet to happen is obvious. Everything was thrown off course by a pandemic which suddenly emerged from the shadows, while unfortunately there are still far too many in positions of influence in this country, including within all the main parties, who desire to override the will of the people, and still work towards that aim. Unless they are resisted, and removed from their positions, the battle for our freedom is far from over.
As far as the comment by Catherine Tuke is concerned, perhaps she would like to explain how any lives lost to Covid would have been saved had the Downing Street parties never happened. The point is that, faced with an existential threat from Putin's military, whether or not someone had cake for their birthday is totally irrelevant.
Times of Tunbridge Wells - 30th March 2022
My wife and I very much admire Russian culture, and accordingly had booked for the Russian Opera on tour. However, while recognising that it would be wrong to boycott artistic icons such as Tchaikovsky, we have no wish for any of our money to find its way back to a Russia committing war crimes in Ukraine. When Councillors Paul Stepto and Marguerita Morton suggest that customers are somehow at fault, when they assume that a company performing under the title of the Russian State Opera is indeed what its name implies, they are being absurd.
It is not the responsibility of those buying tickets to research the registration of such organisations, any liability for misunderstanding being laid at the doors of those who allowed what is in essence false advertising. Having attended performances in St Petersburg we quite rightly took it that the organisation was as stated, and that therefore we should support the boycott. I suggest that in future artistic companies do not adopt titles to which they are not entitled. Accusations of xenophobia are thrown around by those who prefer abuse to facts.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 25th March 2022
At a time when Putin's thugs are killing and maiming innocent men, women and children, the usual suspects of the liberal left unerringly pick the wrong side to support. They work on a version of Orwell's sheep in 1984, as to them it is always "our side wrong, any other side right".
Steve Barrass appears to think that EU membership is some sort of panacea for countries under threat, when in fact that organisation is a talking shop, without military power, and dominated by nations already in hock to Russia for their energy supplies.
Tony Sykes echoes this idiocy, as he describes Brexit as a disaster, when in fact it liberated this country from control by unelected bureaucrats. The latter describe Boris as having extreme right wing views, when in reality he is far too liberal to deal with the problems we face, while he also seems to use Putin's threats as reasons to retreat from doing what is right.
Incidentally I did not quote Hitler in my letter, merely pointing out that he made claims similar to Putin about expatriate populations. I assume Mr Sykes favourite quotes would come from EU functionaries, or perhaps Stalin.
Kent Messenger - 24th March 2022
The action taken by P & O ferries in sacking hundreds of British seafarers, replacing them by less well paid foreign workers is utterly deplorable, and is another example of profit being placed before any other consideration. As is evidenced by the mess in which countries such as Germany find themselves over energy supplies we must put the interests of the country first. Quite apart from the immorality of treating people in this way the Merchant Navy helped preserve the freedoms of this country during the Second World War, and to place reliance on foreign labour is madness.
As events in Europe now prove globalisation has had its day, based as it was on a far too rosy view of the world. 'Just in time' supplies, and the running down of reserves leave us vulnerable to our enemies, and we must now revert to being able to fend for ourselves should we find the nation under attack.
Kent Messenger - 17th March 2022
The Russian invasion of the Ukraine has revealed once again the truth about evil men as condemned in Isaiah: "Their feet run to evil; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are sinful thoughts; ruin and destruction lie in their wake." One does not have to be religious to see that this describes Putin and his accomplices to perfection, and we all know that humanity has always possessed a dark side.
However there are also many other despicable people in whom evil exists, and we have seen them come to the fore since the war began. It almost begs belief that sex traffickers should be waiting at the borders of Ukraine in the hope of deceiving women and children fleeing the Russian tanks into trusting them, so that they may involve them in their vile trade, while some of the morons of social media are concocting false accounts of the war, using footage from unrelated conflicts, in order to undermine the efforts of the brave Ukrainian people. Some of the more lunatic conspiracy theorists are even trying to deny that the invasion has occurred at all.
At another level, not evil, but totally misguided, are those who are trying to justify Putin's actions. Whatever historical issues may have been involved there can be no excuse for the bombing of a maternity home, the indiscriminate shelling of residential areas, and the forecast use of banned weapons to save Putin's face. It is a disgrace that benighted apologists for Russia on the Left, and incredibly some conservative commentators, are prepared to justify such actions in the name of some supposed greater cause.
We have those who still seek to fight irrelevant political battles, when we face the need to give absolute priority to ensuing the survival of the democratic world. Those such your correspondent Sarah Harrison seems to believe that it is somehow amusing that anyone should advocate putting an end to the absurd Green agenda, which is undermining our strength, and leaving us beholden to enemies such as Russia, while threatening us with a disastrous shortage of the energy needed, inter alia, to heat our homes. She asks if humanity can find a better source of energy, and the answer is yes, but not immediately. Nuclear fusion will indeed do this, but not until about 2070, and until then we must rely on fossil fuels. In seeking instant change at once she is expressing no more than a pious hope, something that is hoped for but will probably not happen, and offers no practical solutions.
Finally I find it almost unbelievable that, when we face an existential threat, some should still think it appropriate to harp on about 'cakegate', and such trivial rubbish. We have been living in a false dream for decades, unable to see that such matters are inconsequential. As Putin's guns fire the real world has returned, and we must now wake up, and face its actual dangers once again.
Kent Messenger - 10th March 2022
World history stands at a watershed moment. Once again, as in the 1930s, a combination of self deception, complacency, and a refusal to recognize the realities of the world, has put the democratic nations in jeopardy, and vindicated those of us who have long argued against the defence reviews which consistently reduced our military capabilities. There must be a sea change in our thinking if we are to survive, although time is short.
The fellow travellers of organisations such as "Stop the War", and CND, will squeal at the thought of drawing a line in the sand. One comment by a supporter of these moronic groups was "Ukraine deserves more condemnation than Russia, as, if they had acceded to President Putin requests, there would have been no war". It is impossible to understand the mindset of such idiots, who would no doubt have said something similar about Hitler in the 1940s. It is worth recalling that, had the Ukraine not abandoned its nuclear weapons in the aftermath of the Cold War, Russia would not have dared attack. So much for the mindless appeasers of CND! The usual suspects, from the Left of the Labour party, and the ragbag of boneheads and traitors who always support any enemy of the West are whining about "NATO aggressors". As Churchill said of possible traitors in 1940 "Woe betide them!".
The idiotic pursuit of a so called peace dividend has led the West to consistently run down our conventional forces, so that, in the event of overt acts of hostility by our enemies, we will quickly be faced with the alternative of yielding, or resorting to tactical nuclear weapons, which would inevitably lead to use of strategic ICBMs, resulting in the destruction of much of humanity. Too many rungs have been removed from the ladder of escalation, and we must hope that we have time to rectify the situation.
Friedrich Nietzsche said that "Under conditions of peace the warlike man attacks himself.", and in recent years, we have seen this happen, particularly in the Anglosphere. Those pathetic namby-pamby weaklings infesting our universities, whom are crying for 'safe spaces' might find that there are worse things than statues, and books, to threaten their poor little sensibilities, such as a Russian bayonet. What the Chinese government describe as 'Sissy men', desperate to walk around in women's clothes, could discover that the use of incorrect pronouns is the least of their worries, given that Mr Putin is not known for his sympathies to vanishingly small sexual minorities.
I am old enough to remember rationing, and the insane refusal to use our own energy resources, while relying of foreign imports, means that we soon will face placing comparable restrictions on domestic users. The Greens must be ignored and fracking, and new nuclear power stations brought online, while the still large oil and gas fields in our waters, plus if necessary the coal mines, reopened.
We also have a moral duty to take in Ukrainian refugees who share our desire for democracy, and freedom, while being for the most part Christians.
In truth we are now seeing a return to the realities of the world. War is an inborn tendency within mankind, and although we do not seek it, we must be aware that it will never vanish from the planet. As Franklin Roosevelt said "Speak softly and carry a big stick". As we watch the martyrdom of the Ukrainian people we forget that truth at our peril.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 4th March 2022
Once again, as in the 1930s, a combination of self deception, complacency, and a refusal to recognize the realities of the world, has put the democratic nations in jeopardy, and vindicated those of us who have long argued against the defence reviews which consistently reduced our military capabilities.
The claims by Hitler that he was only seeking to protect his fellow countrymen who lived in foreign nations, and were being oppressed, and now echoed by Putin in his claims about Russian speakers abroad, allowed many foolish people to defend the former's actions, until he finally launched the Wehrmacht against totally different peoples. Vladimir Putin has crossed the Rubicon, letting slip the dogs of war, and we now hear the hoofbeats of the four horsemen of the apocalypse resounding across the world. He is clearly not motivated by fear of encirclement, but by a desire to recreate the Russian Empire of the Tsars.
If Putin is allowed to get away with crushing the Ukraine, then the Baltic states will be next, followed by Finland, before he turns his baleful eye on the countries of Western Europe. Meanwhile China will invade Taiwan, while Iran will no doubt try their luck against Israel, although the latter will rightly reply in a manner which will finish the Ayatollahs. As far as we in the West are concerned we must, as Lady Macbeth says to her husband when he hesitated "Screw your courage to the sticking place". No doubt the fellow travellers of organisations such as "Stop the War", and CND, will squeal at the thought of drawing a line in the sand, but, as far as the ordinary people are concerned, they must not support a policy which as Churchill said in January 1940, describing the neutral states "Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last. All of them hope that the storm will pass before their turn comes to be devoured. But I fear greatly that the storm will not pass. It will rage and it will roar ever more loudly, ever more widely".
We must, as in the words of Shakespeare's Henry V "When the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger; Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood" or endure years of retreat, and eventual defeat, by the totalitarian states.
The absurd concerns of the wimps of woke, of whining Remainers, and of fanatical environmentalists, now fade into irrelevance, as the real world puts into proportion their vacuous meanderings.
Kent Messenger - 3rd March 2022
I could respond to those of your correspondents attacking me in your latest edition, but I feel this may be better left until World War III is over. The absurd concerns of the wimps of woke, and of fanatical environmentalists, now fade into irrelevance, as the real world puts into proportion their vacuous meanderings.
Vladimir Putin has crossed the Rubicon, letting slip the dogs of war, and we now hear the hoofbeats of the four horsemen resounding across the world. He is clearly not motivated by fear of encirclement, but by a desire to recreate the Russian Empire of the Tsars, and events are eerily similar to those of the late 1930s, when another despot set out to conquer Europe. The claims by Hitler that he was only seeking to protect his fellow countrymen who lived in foreign nations, and were being oppressed, and now echoed by Putin in his claims about Russian speakers abroad, allowed many foolish people to defend the former's actions until he finally launched the Wehrmacht against totally different peoples. Incidentally one wonders just who thought it a good idea to hold the recent security meeting in a city named Munich.
If Putin is allowed to get away with crushing the Ukraine, then the Baltic states will be next, followed by Finland, before he turns his baleful eye on the countries of Western Europe. Meanwhile China will invade Taiwan, while Iran will no doubt try their luck against Israel, although the latter will reply in a manner which will finish the Ayatollahs. As far as we in the West are concerned we must, as Lady Macbeth says to her husband when he hesitates "Screw your courage to the sticking place". No doubt the fellow travellers of organisations such as "Stop the War", and CND will squeal at the thought of drawing a line in the sand, but, as far as the ordinary people are concerned, they must not support a policy which as Churchill said in January 1940, describing the neutral states "Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last. All of them hope that the storm will pass before their turn comes to be devoured. But I fear greatly that the storm will not pass. It will rage and it will roar ever more loudly, ever more widely".
We must, as in the words of Shakespeare's Henry V "when the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger; Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood" or endure years of retreat, and eventual defeat, by the totalitarian states.
Kent Messenger - 24th February 2022
I was born into the working class, something of which I am proud, as it contributed so much of the blood spilt in defending freedom in two world wars, while the country relied upon the ordinary workers for its industrial well being. Since those days I have seen that class treated with increasing contempt by those who have achieved what they consider superior status, so that the beliefs and attitudes held dear by the former are mocked, or dismissed as racist, misogynistic or generally unacceptable to the sensibilities of the metropolitan liberal elite.
In reality ordinary people for the most part get along perfectly well with members of minority groups, understanding that they often share similar problems due to their common economic position, while it is now generally recognised that the most neglected section of children in the education system come from the white working class, particularly boys. Of course the the cultural warriors now infesting the teaching profession refuse to accept this fact, because of their obsession with woke ideology, and in particular their fanatical promotion of critical race theory, and of the concept of white privilege. I very much doubt that my parents would have considered themselves the beneficiaries of white privilege, when my father lost his job in the 1950s due to ill health, and my mother was obliged to take on cleaning jobs, as well as working during the day, in order to raise two sons.
We now have the situation where parents are reporting that their children are being browbeaten by left wing activists in the schools, and are coming home feeling exhausted, defeated and depressed, having been told that, merely because of the colour of their skin they are not racially innocent. This situation is due to the deliberate policy adopted by the far left to undertake what they described as a march through the institutions, spreading ideas advocating their version of socialism, far removed from that as understood by ordinary Labour party supporters.
What these blinkered fanatics fail to appreciate is that this sort of propaganda will eventually anger the majority of the population, resulting in the sort of inter racial strife they claim to fear. It is not those from the ethnic minorities who are the enemy of the working class, but the white liberal elitists now dominating so much of our social landscape.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 18th February 2022
Cressida Dick should never have been appointed head of the Metropolitan Police after the operation she directed as leader of Gold Command led to the death of the innocent Brazilian Jean Charles da Silva e de Menezes, an appointment condemned by his family. Nevertheless the desire of our political class to display their politically correct credentials ensured that they preferred to select the first female head, regardless of other issues.
Now that she is retiring there is an opportunity to make fundamental changes to the Met, returning it to its proper function of fighting genuine crime, but the continued dominance of the so called progressives makes such action unlikely. Unfortunately TV's DCI Hunt is a fictional character, but it is his model of policing which would restore common-sense to the force, although whether any such as he could exist under the modern leadership is doubtful. An end should be put to the growing power of what is an embryonic Thought Police, spending time pursuing innocent citizens for using their right of free speech to oppose the nostrums of the politically correct, while the use of trained constables for monitoring computer crime should be stopped, a separate expert agency, on the lines of GCHQ, being created for such matters, who, once having established the details, could pass the evidence to the police for final action.
The public wants the police to be visible on the streets, dealing with both petty and major crime, not sitting in offices looking at computers, or attempting to intimidate law abiding citizens by 'checking their thinking', as has happened on more than one occasion. However I do not think anything will change until we have a government that is not in thrall to the vociferous activists of the Left. Whether that will ever be the case is, at best, doubtful.
Kent Messenger - 17th February 2022
I am sure that those now being forced to choose between eating, or heating their homes, will share Mike Eddy's amusement that anyone should be so misguided as to question the basic premise which is the cause of their dilemma. No doubt, pensioners, sitting wrapped in blankets in freezing rooms, will keep warm by contemplating their own virtue, while joining in a rousing laugh-along-with-Mike in ridiculing those who dared to suggest that global warming is unconnected to human activity (does that formulation meet with your approval Mr Eddy?).
Your other correspondent Ken Chapman appears to believe that to question climate change is a right wing policy, yet it is noticeable that it will be the less fortunate members of our society who will bear the brunt of the measures being forced upon us by the Greens, while the majority of those so exercised by the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere enjoy their warm, middle class homes, and drive around in electric vehicles, the cost of which prevent the hoi polloi from cluttering up the roads. I am reminded of the probably apocryphal suggestion attributed to Marie Antoinette about bread and cake (on no, not cake again!). Those who cannot afford gas should try under floor heating, and those who can no longer afford a car should use a hired limousine.
I suspect that an impartial observer from Alpha Centauri (is that how you spell it Mr Eddy?) would, should they posses a sense of humour, find the manner in which the human race was, like the Gadarene swine, possessed by demons which sent them racing into a sea of unreason, while finding especial amusement in the manner in which the British sacrificed their economy, and standard of living, to reduce the incidence of a harmless gas, while the main nations emitting the latter continued on their merry way, actually increasing their output of same.
Mr Eddy accuses me of being a latter day Alf Garnett, but I fear I am more like Cassandra, cursed to utter true prophecies, but never to be believed, until of course it is too late
Kent and Sussex Courier - 11th February 2022
Richard Landolt challenges me to name one benefit that Brexit has brought to the UK, although, given that the rose tinted spectacles he wears when looking at the EU are so thick, I doubt he could read the response. I do not know who the 'we' is when he attacks my comments on the Brussels bureaucracy, as clearly he does not speak for the majority of the electorate.
To answer his question, in common with all those slavishly devoted to rule from Brussels, he refuses to recognize that Brexit was not primarily about economic issues, but concerned the right of the British people to determine their own fate. The massive benefit which we have derived from leaving the EU is that we are once again governed by democratically elected, and accountable members of parliament, not frequently corrupt, and incompetent, appointees, usually failed politicians from minor states. To this one may add the right to make trade deals across the world, thus expanding the commerce which actually yields a profit, unlike the constant deficit we endured with the rest of the EU when a member.
Unfortunately the British establishment has obstructed a proper implementation of Brexit at every opportunity, while even the Conservative party has fallen for the nonsense being peddled by the Green lobby, distorting our economy by an absurd obsession with becoming carbon neutral. The country will only truly spread its wings if we put an end to all the EU regulations still in place, reject the Northern Ireland protocol in its entirety, and properly exploit domestic energy resources, including fully developing the North Sea oilfields, fracking and using nuclear power.
Perhaps Mr Landolt, Mr Barrass and other Europhiles ought to worry about the growing rebellion among Eastern European members, who are clearly also heading for the door marked exit.
Kent Messenger - 10th February 2022
Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, Star Hobson, Amina Johnson: the latest names in a litany of babies and children tormented, and then murdered by those responsible for caring for them. Thirty teenagers, the majority from ethnic minorities, stabbed to death on our streets last year. Almost one hundred women murdered by their so called partners in the same period. How many more deaths before we reject the liberal policies which have dominated the justice system for decades, and recognize that only by making the punishment fit the crime may we hope to stem this tide of the blood of innocents.
Virtue signalling elitists claim that deterrence does not work, a self evident lie, as it is the way in which humans, or indeed any sentient creature, learns to avoid fire, or to weigh risk against action. If these foul killers knew that they would face capital punishment for taking a life the vast majority would refrain from doing so, yet those who have dominated our nation for far too long prefer to defend them, advocating soft sentences which have allowed those guilty of such crimes to walk free often within a few years of being convicted.
The opponents of capital punishment try to make out that those who advocate it are a minority, who possess the mindset of a latter day Judge Jeffreys, yet the truth is that polls have constantly shown a majority in favour, while we who support it reserve our sympathy for the victims, not the perpetrators. Now we have left the EU we are at liberty to reinstate capital punishment. As it says in the Bible when Cain killed Abel the Lord said "Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground" and do not the weak deserve protection from the strong.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 4th February 2022
In 2020 you published a letter from me warning that the old proverb "those whom the Gods wish to destroy they first make mad" was coming true in our time, and nothing has changed beyond a further descent into insanity. At a time when we face war in Europe the broadcast media obsesses over cake, we are threatened with a disaster in our energy supplies thanks to credence being given to the lunatic Green agenda, and the woke continue to advance on all fronts.
It is unbelievable that in the USA men are now self identifying as pregnant, while children are identifying as cats. Instead of telling the latter to stop being so stupid, some morons are actually providing them with litter trays.
Unless the sane majority put a stop to all this nonsense Western democratic civilisation will go the way of the Roman Empire, as totalitarian regimes like China, who treat such imbecility with the contempt it deserves, will triumph. A mindless decadence is undermining our societies, and we do not have long to prevent catastrophe.
Kent Messenger - 3rd February 2022
I totally agree with Lesley Flint that overpopulation is possibly the most challenging crisis facing humanity, but I am afraid that she does not understand my position on climate change. Neither the historical, nor the geological, record supports the claim that fluctuations in climate are connected to the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Changes are due to natural processes quite outside our control, such as solar output, and orbital eccentricities, and sacrificing our industrial society will be to wear a hair shirt to no purpose.
To give one example of dissent from the consensus, which the Greens claim exists, but does not, the European Climate Declaration signed by 500 scientists states "Current climate policies pointlessly and grievously undermine the economic system, putting lives at risk in countries denied access to affordable, reliable electrical energy". Another scientific group asserts that "There is no reproducible empirical scientific evidence that the extra carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere by the human population burning fossil fuels since the beginning of the industrial revolution has had, or will have, an effect on the Earth's climate that is detrimental to the human population".
We must reject the alarmist predications of the environmental lobby as it is an illusion to suppose that solar and wind can come near to meeting our constant and justified energy needs. Disaster awaits if we do not now row back on policies undermining our energy supplies. The immense cost of continuing these misguided policies will fall on all of us. All for a hypothesis which is false
Kent and Sussex Courier - 28th January 2022
Boris is far from perfect, as his enthusiastic endorsement of the extreme Green agenda attests. However the matter of drink parties at No 10, pursued obsessively by the Left, with the BBC acting as cheerleader, reveals the truth about the attitude of the British establishment to him, and the implacable hatred with which he is regarded by the Remainers for actually sticking to his guns, and delivering Brexit, albeit not yet fully.
That fanatical Remainer Lord Adonis made the game plan clear when he said "If Boris goes, Brexit goes". The bureaucrats, the so called progressive Left, the judiciary, large parts of the media, and almost all of the chattering classes are incandescent that the British people actually dared to defy them, and voted to leave the EU. They still do not accept that this is an accomplished fact, and continue to try and reverse the situation, while the BBC, even when war threatens in Eastern Europe, treats so called "Partygate" as if it was the most important challenge facing the nation. Their commentators, and indeed those of other broadcast media, such as Sky News, act as if they were the spokespeople for the opposition, not impartial reporters.
These people accuse Boris of showing contempt for the electorate, but we must never forget that they did their best to negate the greatest democratic vote taken in this country, because they have more in common with their continental counterparts than with the British people. When the result of the 2016 referendum was declared one senior civil servant was reported as saying "it will never happen". What arrogance!
I wonder how many of us religiously obeyed every regulation introduced during the pandemic. Boris is accused of hypocrisy but the true hypocrites are those who are casting the first stone.
Kent Messenger - 27th January 2022
The matter of drink parties, pursued by the Left, with the BBC acting as cheerleader, reveals the truth about the attitude of the British establishment to Boris, and the implacable hatred with which he is regarded by the Remainers for actually sticking to his guns, and delivering Brexit, albeit not yet fully.
The bureaucrats, the so called progressive Left, the judiciary, large parts of the media, and almost all of the chattering classes are incandescent that the British people actually dared to defy them, and voted to leave the EU. They still do not accept that this is an accomplished fact, and continue to try and reverse the situation. That fanatical Remainer Lord Adonis made the game plan clear when he said "If Boris goes, Brexit goes". The BBC, even when war threatens in Eastern Europe, treats so called "Partygate" as if it was the most important challenge facing the nation. Their commentators, and indeed those of other broadcast media, such as Sky News, act as if they were the spokespeople for the opposition, not impartial reporters.
These people accuse Boris of showing contempt for the electorate, but we must never forget that they did their best to negate the greatest democratic vote taken in this country, because they have more in common with their continental counterparts than with the British people. When the result of the 2016 referendum was declared one senior civil servant was reported as saying "it will never happen". What arrogance!
Boris makes mistakes, and certainly needs to get a grip, but the true hypocrites are those who point at the mote in his eye, while ignoring the plank in theirs.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 14th January 2022
As usual Steve Barrass confuses his subjective wishes with objective reality. Far from the theory of climate change being due to CO2 emissions being universally accepted, increasing numbers of serious scientists are pointing out that the gas is as innocent as Dreyfus, and that there is no evidence of cause and effect. Climate varies due to natural processes outside human control, and we cannot stop such changes, but need to adapt to them.
As far as his comments on Brexit are concerned it must have escaped his notice that there is a growing discontent within the EU about the direction the bloc is taking, with Poland muttering about Polexit, while France and Germany are at odds about energy policy, among many other things. The only problem with Brexit is that it has not yet been fully implemented, as the Northern Ireland Protocol must be abolished, while there must also be a bonfire of redundant regulations, and restrictions on trade, in order for the UK to enjoy the great opportunities before us. It is obvious that our so called friends in France will continue to push their unwanted economic migrants across the Channel, so the government must take urgent steps to stem the flow.
That Mr Barrass could welcome the continued treatment of the country as some sort of outpatient ward is amazing, given that most people have had enough of living in a clinic, when it is clear that the pandemic is rapidly becoming no more than an endemic infection, such as influenza.
I join Mr Barrass in wishing everyone a better New Year, but common-sense must be restored to our affairs if it is to be so.
Kent Messenger - 13th January 2022
I resent the implication by John Cooper that I have some sort of agenda when writing about the murder of children Star Hobson, and Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, as in reality I am motivated by pity for these poor little mites, and immense anger directed at their murderers, and, for different reasons at those who failed them.
Mr Cooper asserts that my claim that social workers are influenced by leftish ideology is a sweeping generalisation when in fact this is clear in case after case, and specifically in that of the little girl, for, as reported by the media, a bias in favour of a lesbian couple was said to be one reason why nothing was done, while he does not address the point I made about the replacement of mature staff by university graduates. It is obvious that those who have raised children themselves, and who are not in thrall to the absurd theories of university sociology departments, are much less likely to be taken in by the lies of the guilty parties.
I doubt that many who witness the massacre of the innocents taking place will share Mr Cooper's desire to take their hats off to those who have failed these children, while I suspect that very many would support my view that the murderers themselves should be subjected to the ultimate penalty, not allowed to escape with prison sentences.
In a different comment John Brightwell questions my contention that we need not rush into undermining our society in order to reduce CO2 emissions. He clearly misses the point that if, as many scientists believe, CO2 has nothing to do with climate change, then attacking such emissions is a waste of time, and a futile gesture in the face of natural phenomenon, about which we can do nothing but adapt to a changed world.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 7th January 2022
As they face greatly increased energy bills ordinary people are beginning to realise that there will be an immense cost to acceding to the demand of the Green lobby. What makes it so depressing is that the basic theory of an anthropological cause of any warming which might take place is flawed, yet the political class continue to put virtue signalling above the welfare of the population.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is the main cheerleader for the Greens, nevertheless admitted in 2018 that "the climate system is a coupled non-linear chaotic system, and therefore the long-term prediction of future climate states is not possible." Evidence from the historical record refutes the claim that CO2 emissions cause warming, as human emissions of carbon dioxide from 1700 to 1850 were insignificant, yet historical records indicate the earth warmed at about the same rate during that period as it has since 1850 to the present while, more recently, the pause in warming between 1995 and 2014 coincided with what were then the highest-ever human-caused CO2 emissions.
Unfortunately the great majority of scare stories about the present, and future state of the planet, and humanity as a whole, are based on arcane subjects so most people have no way of determining whether the claims of a doomsday threat are credible, instead being reliant on the activists, the media, the politicians, and the scientists, all of whom have a very large financial or political stake in the subject, to tell them the truth.
In reality the intention to phase out all fossil fuel consumption in thirty years is the biggest threat to civilisation in the world today. Some want us to give up 80 percent of our total energy supply, currently provided by reliable, cost-effective fossil fuels, and replace it with unreliable expensive forms of energy like wind and solar. The environment extremists must be ignored if we are to have a viable future.
Kent Messenger - 6th January 2022
I hope that the prospect of massive rises to domestic energy bills will awaken people to the fact that uncritical acceptance of the dubious theories of the vociferous Green lobby comes at a significant cost. While it may make some feel virtuous to airily talk of saving the planet the reality is that, unless the absurd demands of the climate extremists are rejected we shall all be very much poorer, with a standard of living permanently lower than that which we have known in the past.
Many scientists disagree with the claims that the theory of anthropological global warming is beyond dispute but, thanks to the craven action by politicians who have merely bowed before the environmentalists, we have closed coal mines, ignored the large reserves of energy available from fracking, and allowed substantial reserves of gas below the North Sea to remain unexploited. The fact that we are thereby reduced to buying gas from Russia, at an increased cost in money, and a greater dependence on those who wish us ill, does not seem to have occurred to these fanatics.
If millions are not to be either reduced to poverty, or frozen in their own homes, the real cost of passively yielding to the clamour of an aggressive minority must be made clear, and a major change made to the direction of travel on energy policy.
BBC History Magazine - 1st January 2022
I was amazed by the letter from Bob Bass, discounting the value of studying history.
I am sure many people know the aphorism by writer and philosopher George Santayana "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.", and if we do not know where we came from, or how our culture came into being, we would indeed be wandering in an unenlightened desert of the mind.
There are many warnings from history which can provide a guide as to how to avoid making the same mistakes over and over again, and not to know of their existence would be foolish indeed.
Kent Messenger - 22nd December 2021
I am sure that I am not alone in feeling a sick anger at the murder of poor little Arthur Labinjo-Hughes. When I think that this little boy is recorded as saying "Nobody loves me, no one is going to feed me" I am consumed with fury that an innocent should die convinced that this was true.
Now we have the equally awful case of the sweet little girl Star Hobson, who was murdered at the age of 16 months by her mother's female 'partner' while the mother herself stood by, and did nothing. Indeed, while any normal person would, if they heard a child crying, try to help them, these two just laughed. As usual social workers allowed these cowardly bullies to talk their way out of it, but this time it is reported that, because they were lesbians, decided to treat the warnings from the family as being motivated by an anti-gay prejudice.
When my late mother was in her fifties, and after having raised two sons, she, as a convinced Christian, volunteered to work as a social worker looking after the less fortunate, including children. Many of her colleagues had a similar background. Suddenly they were told that their services were no longer required, as all social workers were now required to have a university degree, so they were dismissed, to be replaced by youngsters, who had no practical knowledge of bringing up children, and, worse, had been through indoctrination by left wing lecturers in sociology, so they were obsessed with applying the fashionable nostrums of the Left, rather than dealing with the real world. As a consequence middle class white parents are treated as guilty until proved innocent, while those whom the Left love to consider victims by virtue of their ethnicity or sexual orientation are excused time and time again.
Perhaps one day we will have a courageous government, which will replace the current set of social workers with those who can recognize evil when they encounter it, but I am not holding my breath.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 17th December 2021
The privations that those in Scotland and the North have endured due to loss of power should act as a warning that we must cease to heed the nonsense emanating from the environmental lobby, else such misery will become commonplace throughout the nation.
There is no climate crisis. Fluctuations in temperature are due to natural processes outside human control, and when these result in rises in temperature, as they do regularly in historical and geological terms, the sea becomes less able to absorb carbon dioxide, so the amount in the atmosphere increases, the exact opposite of the process claimed by the Greens, who are putting the cart before the horse. The gas involved is not a cause, but an effect of variations in temperature, is actually benign, and is no threat to us or the planet.
Unless we reject the unreasonable demands of the environmentalists we shall see the bankruptcy of the nation, the economic foundation of our society undermined, and our way of life destroyed. All this in pursuit of a stubborn belief in a dogma, driven by ignorance, and not supported, as claimed, by an unassailable consensus of climate scientists, but driven by what amounts to a global cult.
Kent Messenger - 9th December 2021
In common with all those who insist that the planet is in danger because of human activity Dr Kolmel makes assertions which he claims to be factual, when in fact they are largely opinions.
Firstly, while no one denies that the Earth's climate changes, this is because, unlike the Moon, this is a dynamic planet, where volcanic activity, continental drift and changes in ocean currents, when added to vagaries in the planet's orbit, and the output of the Sun, inevitably mean that we cannot expect a situation where climate remains static. Secondly, and much more controversial, is his claim that changes are anthropological in nature, as our activities are minimal compared to the flucuations arising from the aforementioned factors. He states that such changes are dangerous, yet we need not fear for the planet, as, barring any unlikely event such as a rogue neutron star wandering into the Solar System, the Earth should be around for at least four billion years, before the Sun expands into a red giant.
Perhaps his most risible believe is that experts are in agreement, as, apart from the fact that many reputable scientists do not accept the basic premises of the environmentalists, we have seen during the Covid emergency that, over time, experts often can't agree with themselves, let alone with each other, as various straw men are raised, only to be knocked down later.
In reality increases in CO2 will not cause a climate emergency as its level is lower than it has been in the last half a million years, and it has almost reached the limit beyond which it cannot absorb more than tiny amounts of radiant heat. Indeed it is a life-giving gas, which is essential for plant growth.
Unfortunately what we are seeing now are those who wish to order others about, having lost their beloved EU, with its undemocratic diktats from Brussels, have found a cause which restores their opportunities to override democratic states because of a supposed looming catastrophe. In this they have allies in those who would see us locked in our homes because of what is a rapidly diminishing threat from coronavirus.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 3rd December 2021
Every time the British government is not able to merely dictate whatever they wish to foreign governments Europhiles such as Richard Landolt claim that this proves that we have not taken back control, as those of us supporting the Leave campaign promised.
Of course they are being deliberately disingenuous, as they know only too well that what we meant was that the democratic control of our destiny would be returned to our elected representatives, and removed from a group of appointed apparatchiks in Brussels. This is was has been done and our fate as a nation is now back until the control of the British people.
Mr Landholt's comments about Brexit causing additional costs are also incorrect, as it is the spiteful reaction of the EU elite which has caused most of these totally unnecessary problems. Even if it were true, which it is not, Europhiles will never understand that there are things more important than money. If we did not believe this we would not have expended most of our financial resources last century defending freedom against continental tyranny, but would rather have stood aside, while hoarding our resources like some latter day Scrooge.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 19th November 2021
A combination of Covid, and the relentless rise of the internet, is undermining any concept of after sales service and support. When seeking the latter concerning even recently purchased goods I have encountered companies whose websites only offer email or postal addresses, with no telephone number being provided. Among those that do supply the latter most constantly refer the customer back to the website, or present a succession of options to select, sometimes none of which allow one to speak to an actual human being.
Even though the incidence of Covid is now very much reduced we are greeted with statements that the company concerned is experiencing an unprecedented level of calls, while many still rely on staff who are working from home, and do not have access to what is required to deal with problems.
The lack of high street stores where one can view and buy goods has also led to the lack of anywhere one can go to seek help with those previously purchased, and gives the lie to the constant claims that we are a service economy
Kent Messenger - 18th November 2021
That an Oxford college has accepted donations from the family of a notorious fascist exposes once and for all the utter hypocrisy of the 'woke', who are causing so much havoc in our society.
While attempting to blacken the name of many historical figures because of supposed, and frequently incorrect, assumptions about their attitudes to slavery and colonialism, these fanatics, among whom are numbered many academics and administrators at our supposed temples of learning, the most ancient, and bloody prejudice of all, anti Semitism, is ignored.
In common with the rest of the militant Left, and in the face of the horrors of the Holocaust, these virtue signalling extremists refuse to recognize the Jewish people as victims because, consciously, or unconsciously, they perceive the latter to be white, and therefore not qualified for victim status.
Despite the many conflicts around the world, and the persecution of those such as the Uyghurs in China, the woke reserve their hatred for the state of Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, while crying crocodile tears about the Palestinians, who to them are just a convenient stick with which to beat the Jewish state.
This selective attitude also extends to other minorities enduring attack, such as the Christians throughout the Middle East, whose plight is ignored by those who think of them as Westerners.
We must stop shrugging our shoulders about these activists, or just laugh them off as pathetic know nothings, as they are truly evil, and are undermining free Western societies as much as the Communists ever did
Kent Messenger - 11th November 2021
The responses to my comments on the questionable reality of anthropological global warming imply that a direct correlation between such and industrialisation exists, and that it is not open to debate. Quite apart from the fact that the climate alarmists have been shown to be basing much of their case upon things such as the famous discredited graph purporting to show an uninterrupted rise in temperature, they also ignore the publicised attempts by certain academics to conceal the fact that the actuality did not coincide with their claims.
However, there can be no harm, and much to gain, if the direction of travel is towards a greener, and more sustainable world, but the problem lies in the ridiculous haste the activists insist upon, not being prepared to allow technological advances to make changes possible, without totally disrupting our societies.
It is unfortunate that we now have a toxic combination of those who have always been of an apocalyptic frame of mind, together with that section of the chattering classes who hate their own county, plus the vociferous ignoramuses of social media, creating a perfect storm of hatred directed at the West, while absolving others, such as China, from taking any blame.
The industrial revolution is now being pictured as a bad thing, when in fact it eventually made possible the replacement of a life described in 1651 by Thomas Hobbes as being "nasty, brutish, and short", by one which has seen living standards, longevity and health improved out of all recognition. I doubt that the youngsters now shouting about the supposed evil let loose on the world by Britain would be happy to be living the life of a mediaeval peasant.
Contrary to the claim by Dr Kolmel that to question a supposed consensus is ranting, it is essential that any initiatives which have the potential to comprise our way of life should be subject to informed debate, not based upon the views of Scandinavian teenagers and Twitter bullies.
Kent Messenger - 4th November 2021
When speaking of the oppressed proletariat in 1984 Orwell says "But the proles, if only they could somehow become conscious of their own strength, would have no need to conspire. They needed only to rise up and shake themselves like a horse shaking off flies. If they chose they could blow the Party to pieces tomorrow morning. Surely sooner or later it must occur to them to do it? And yet-!". Today the ordinary, decent, normal people both of this country and the USA, are in the same position relating to the lunatics of woke.
These arrogant, humourless authoritarians aim to corrupt our language, distort our history, and our culture, while brainwashing youngsters into believing that this country is somehow uniquely guilty of all the wrongs in the world. They have been responsible for undermining our universities to the point where undergraduates are unwilling to tolerate the kind of democratic debate which is the raison d'etre of education, of causing good people to lose their jobs because of speaking their mind in a manner which offends them, and even, via social media, of creating an atmosphere where some are put in fear of their lives. They believe themselves to be beyond criticism, as they claim to be acting from highly virtuous motives, yet possess very little actual knowledge of facts, preferring bombastic assertions and personal invective to reasoned discussion.
They must be opposed wherever they are encountered. People must say that they will not be cowed into silence, or forced to accept that the language they speak, the books they read, or even the thoughts they have, will be conformed to the wishes of these cretins. If these self appointed Thought Police are allowed to prevail we will live in a nightmare, where freedom of speech, and of thought, no longer exist.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 29th October 2021
As we brace ourselves to endure another bout of virtue signalling at the Glasgow COP26 summit perhaps the green fanatics would do us the honour of answering a few simple questions, without the use of bombastic assertions, or personal invective.
How do they explain that scientists, many of whom the environmentalists are so fond of quoting when it suits them, tell us that the geological record shows that carbon dioxide levels in the distant past were as much as ten times today's levels, at the same time as intense glaciation. Why is it that there was global warming comparable to today, both at the time the Roman Empire was at its height, and again in mediaeval times, well before industrialisation? Most fundamentally why should be wear sackcloth and ashes, giving up affordable cars, and gas boilers, when the UK only emits one per cent of the carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere each year, and the main polluters have made clear that they have no real intention to abide by any agreements?
The arrogance of those blocking our roads, imposing ridiculous limits on the use of cars, and constantly harassing us about our supposed environmental sins, is overwhelming, and should be resisted by ordinary people trying to go about their own business.
Kent Messenger - 28th October 2021
The somewhat authoritarian tone displayed in the letter from Lesley Flint, combined with the constant pressure being applied by environmental activists, should awaken the public to the manner in which both our democracy, and our standard of living, are under threat from those whose fanatical attachment to dubious claims about anthropological global warming is driving the political agenda.
Without boring readers with too much detail the climate of the Earth has always varied, extensively on a geographical timescale, and considerably on an historical one. In all the propaganda from climate change obsessives how often do we hear about the medieval warming period from 950 AD to 1250 AD, when average global mean temperatures have been calculated to be similar to the early-mid-20th-century warming. Possible causes included increased solar activity, decreased volcanic activity, and changes in ocean circulation. Nothing to do with Man's activities! This period was then followed by global cooling from about 1300 to 1850, and it should also be noted that we are actually living in an interglacial of an Ice Age.
That we should lose affordable cars, and gas central heating, to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which may very well have little to do with climate change, while at the same time nations such as China intend to build hundreds more coal fired stations is insane. When we add to that the manner in which green activists block our roads, and seek to undermine democratic governance if they fail to get their way, it is clear that it is time that a halt was called to the appeasement of these extremists. Government policy must be fundamentally changed if we are not to make unnecessary sacrifices to no purpose.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 22nd October 2021
I am afraid that Tony Sykes either lacks historical knowledge, or has a very bad memory, if he thinks that his political views reflect those of the genuine, as opposed to politically correct, Left. He constantly implies that Brexit was intended to benefit the better off, yet for much of the twentieth century the Labour party was opposed to involvement in the European project. When that euro fanatic Edward Heath asked Prime Minister Clement Attlee to take steps to join the European Coal and Steel Community, the precursor to the EU, Attlee refused, saying that he was not prepared to hand over Britain's most vital economic forces to an utterly undemocratic authority. In taking this principled stance Attlee was enthusiastically supported by his successor as Leader of the Labour Party, Hugh Gaitskill, and the policy was later endorsed by Tony Benn and Michael Foot.
Attlee was a true patriot, wounded in the First World War, and a true democrat, who believed in the primacy of Parliament, and would never have handed the effective governance of the country to an unelected bureaucracy in Brussels. Many now criticise his nationalisation policies, but forget that at the time private owners had been exploiting working people for generations. He was faced with a country which, despite winning the war, was on its knees economically, yet he set up the NHS, implemented selective education through the Education Act, and authorised the development of our independent nuclear deterrent.
The EU is beloved by elites because it undermines democracy, and prevents the people from determining their own future, forcing them to take a knee to their supposed betters. Supranational organisations are inherently undemocratic, and we escaped from rule by unelected bureaucrats in the nick of time.
Kent Messenger - 21st October 2021
I have no doubt that, even in their dotage, Remainers such as Stuart Love will still be mumbling about Brexit, although by then the EU will have been consigned to what Trotsky referred to in 1917 as the dustbin of history.
The crisis concerning HGV drivers has been long in the making, predating Brexit by decades, and afflicts mainland Europe, the USA and China as well as the UK. The failures of energy policy also have deep roots, but the blame can be shared equally by fanatical environmentalists, and incompetent politicians, the latter having allowed nuclear power, fracking and storage capacity for gas to have been criminally neglected.
The Northern Ireland border is the product of EU intransigence, and the latter's determination to punish the UK for daring to defy Brussels, while the problems with fishing stem from French refusal to compromise on virtually everything. Despite the insistence of Remainers' claim that the promise of more money for the NHS was untrue the fact is that even more funds have been poured into this bottomless pit since Brexit.
Mr Dove might like to note that the provision of lorry parks is indeed one of the solutions to the HGV crisis, but of course his final comment about taking back control is the crux of the whole debate. The EU is beloved by elites because it undermines democracy, and prevents the people from determining their own future, forcing them to take a knee to their supposed betters. Supranational organisations are inherently undemocratic, and we escaped from rule by unelected bureaucrats in the nick of time.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 15th October 2021
Those who have little knowledge of American political history will be unaware that, while their main parties are now polarised between the Democrats on the left, and the Republicans on the right, for decades after the civil war their relative positions were the opposite. Indeed the fact that the Republicans under Lincoln freed the slaves meant that the Democrats of the old Confederate states were far to the right of the political spectrum.
We seem to have a reversal of positions in the UK for when I was a youngster there was never any doubt that the Conservatives were the party of business and the well off, while the Labour party spoke for the workers and the poor, but now this seems to have radically changed. The government is attempting to increase the standard of living for ordinary people by using the opportunity afforded by Brexit to put an end to the manner in which businesses use the importation of cheap labour to undercut pay, and to avoid the effort of training indigenous workers, but the Labour party's knee jerk support for rule by Brussels leads them to oppose such policies. In addition the Labour leader, desperate to cobble together a coalition of ethnic and sexual minorities, apparently attaching more importance to denying biological facts than to speaking for what was his party's core constituency.
The extreme left seems to have totally lost its grip on reality, as is highlighted by one commentator who says "Imagine if someone had told you back in the 1980s that in the future the Tories would proudly host a pro-homosexual movement at their annual conference, and that the Left would be screaming in fury from the sidelines and demanding that these hateful, dangerous homosexuals be silenced." Even in the left wing Observer newspaper a columnist asks why the progressive left isn't fighting for the rights of employees who've been sacked for saying things their employers disapprove of outside office hours saying "The bossy left has become the bosses' left."
The Labour party forgets at its peril that the vast majority of its potential voters do not belong to the minorities it is courting, and even those who do are often opposed to the rise of cancel culture, with its consequent suppression of free speech.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 8th October 2021
If commentators were to listen to HGV drivers they would understand why truckers have been leaving the profession, with few joining, and why overseas drivers will not be attracted to the UK merely by three month visas, and inadequate pay rises, as they are frequently treated as a nuisance to be moved on, ignored and disparaged, their wages failing to reflect their true value.
We do not need large number of surplus graduates generated by the ridiculous policy of sending so many to university, for whom we have created a vast number of useless jobs, such as diversity consultants, HR managers or armies of NHS directors, but we do require truckers, electricians, plumbers etc., yet the former are vastly overpaid, while the latter, being regarded as just working class, are not. The truly useful professions should be valued, but, as usual, the class system in this country prevents the necessary rebalancing away from middle class concerns. Greedy and lazy employers, with a short term mindset, have for too long relied on importing foreign workers, rather than training indigenous staff, and paying them properly, and are now squealing because that easy avenue to maximise profits has been blocked, thanks to our taking back control of our economy, and our borders, from Brussels.
To provide proper compensation, and good working conditions, for such jobs, would mean that costs will rise, but as anyone who has studied basic economics knows, in a free market economy, if the supply of something does not meet demand the cost of the former must rise to meet the latter, and this applies to labour as much as to goods. The current crisis may force the country to face up to the fact that, thanks to decades of political incompetence, and entrenched attitudes to employment, the economy must now be rebalanced in favour of real workers, and away from the type of employment favoured by the chattering classes.
Unfortunately the main parties seem more concerned with absurd theories on climate, while the Labour party in particular now only cares about sexual and ethnic minorities, not the working class which it once represented.
Kent Messenger - 7th October 2021
There is no mystery as to why we are experiencing an HGV crisis. If commentators were to listen to the workers themselves they would learn that there are very good reasons why truckers have been leaving the profession. One, who has since resigned, says that on the Continent parking places, rest areas, and adequate food outlets are provided, whereas in this country, and particularly in Kent for some reason, truckers are treated as a nuisance to be moved on, ignored and disparaged. They will not be attracted to the UK merely by three month visas, and inadequate pay rises.
Obviously to provide proper compensation, and good working conditions, for a difficult, and often dangerous job, would mean that costs will rise, but as anyone who has studied basic economics knows, in a free market economy, if the supply of something does not meet demand the cost of the former must rise to meet the latter, and this applies to labour as much as to goods.
Unfortunately, thanks to the need to provide employment for the large number of surplus graduates generated by the ridiculous policy of sending so many to university, the country has created a vast number of useless jobs, and then overpaid those recruited. We do not need diversity consultants, HR managers or armies of NHS directors, but we do need truckers, electricians, plumbers etc., yet the former are paid large salaries, while the latter, being regarded as just working class, are not. We need to follow the example of nations such as Switzerland, where useful professions are valued, but as usual, the class system in this country prevents the necessary rebalancing away from middle class concerns.
Perhaps the current crisis will force us to face up to the manner in which this is undermining our economy, thanks to decades of political incompetence, and entrenched attitudes to employment. However the main parties seem more concerned with absurd theories on climate, while the Labour party in particular now only cares about sexual and ethnic minorities, not the working class which it once represented.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 1st October 2021
The growing energy crisis is merely the beginning of the disaster we face, thanks to our political elite having accepted without question the specious arguments of the environmental lobby, and its appeasement of the extremists who seek to disrupt our society.
One would have thought that the contrary, and frequently incorrect assertions made by so called scientific experts concerning the Coronavirus epidemic would have made clear that to 'rely on the science' means little when the science is itself questionable, but this is the mantra of those convinced that, in order to 'save the planet', we must sacrifice our way of life. A few years ago the scientific consensus was that we should fear the end of the current interglacial, but now the most vociferous claim that the opposite is true.
While it is sensible that incremental steps be taken to replace finite resources these should not be undertaken at a precipitate rate, endangering our energy supplies, and undermining our economy, particularly when the contribution of this country to CO2 emissions represents less than one per cent of the global total.
To reduce our gas storage capacity to an absolute minimum, to rely on the wind, which doesn't always blow, and to make cars, and warm homes, too expensive for the working class, in order to appease the green obsessed chattering classes, are policies which will result in misery for millions in pursuit of a chimera. If the Conservatives wish to be reelected they should abandon this fixation on a dubious theory, and cease to listen to the green fanatics. The latter should transfer their attentions to the Chinese embassy, not the M25.
Kent Messenger - 30th September 2021
Marilyn Sansom asks if nuclear weapons would have protected us from 9/11, and of course they would not, but that is not why we have them. We hold them for the same reason that prudent people have house and car insurance. We hope that we will never have to actually use them, but possession ensures that hostile nuclear armed nations will be deterred from using them on us, either to destroy us, or to blackmail us into acceding to their demands.
Does Ms Sansom doubt that, had Hitler or Stalin had sole ownership of such weapons they would not have used them instantly to achieve their vile ends? As a woman she should reflect that, if the West were to renounce them, it would then be possible for a fanatical Islamic regime which did hold them to demand that we submit to Sharia law, mutilating criminals, stoning homosexuals, and reducing women to third class citizens, on pain of seeing our cities destroyed one by one unless we submitted.
If it was even achievable to remove them from the world it would only have the effect of ensuring that large scale conventional warfare would return, the overwhelming advantage going to the vast armies of China and Russia. If we are to remain free we need to deter enemies from even contemplating attacking us, and nuclear weapons are the only way in which to do that. To answer Ms Sansom's other question they clearly represent value for money.
Kent Messenger - 23rd September 2021
This country will slide into anarchy if those charged with defending us against criminals become instead their accomplices.
It is no surprise that the self righteous green activists blocking motor ways should behave recklessly, but to see the police acting in their defence, and even preventing frustrated motorists from taking action, is a disgrace.
In their organisation these people number, inter alia, a convicted dealer in heroin, and a holocaust denier, but incredibly they seem to believe that they are morally superior to the decent people to whom they are causing such problems.
That the police actually escorted some of these imbeciles onto the road, and did nothing to remove them for a lengthy period would be unbelievable, were it not for the previous behaviour of other officers taking the knee in sympathy with anti semitic Black Lives Matter demonstrators, and refusing to actively confront the troublemakers of Extinction Rebellion.
The authorities must cease to indulge these arrogant agitators, because if they do not, and law abiding people cannot rely upon the police to enforce the law, we shall see a descent into vigilantism as providing the only means of defending honest citizens from such parasites.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 10th September 2021
Remainers such as Tony Sykes are like a dog with an old bone, refusing to let go of it even when there is nothing further to be derived from its existence. For them every problem must be traced back to Brexit, apparently unaware that the world has been fighting against a viral plague.
Mr Sykes appears to think that the EU would have changed its stance on Afghanistan had we remained, which is totally risible, given that none of its members is prepared to commit to spending what is necessary to present a realistic stance on defence. Now that the US has begun to retreat it is obvious that the policy of relying on the American nuclear umbrella is no longer viable, and that a change is necessary if they are not to face great danger.
On the home front Mr Sykes raises the matter of the shortage of HGV drivers, as if this was a purely British difficulty, resulting from Brexit, when in fact the EU is some 400,000 drivers short of requirements. This is a predicament which has been long gestating, and is due to long standing problems of low pay, poor working conditions and an ageing labour force. Factors such as new tax rules, and of course Covid travel restrictions, have exacerbated matters.
Mr Sykes seems to be on a crusade to blame Boris personally for the problems we face, his constant insults adding nothing to his case, beyond revealing an almost irrational animus against the Prime Minister.
Kent Messenger - 9th September 2021
Bill Ridley raises the tired old complaint that the winning party at the general election did not achieve an absolute majority of votes, although, as has been pointed out time and time again, in a democracy with more than two parties normally gaining significant support, it is all but impossible for any one party to get more than fifty per cent of the vote. Indeed I believe that, since the war, only Labour under Clement Attlee achieved this figure.
If one wished to change our electoral system it is not through proportional representation, which always leads to the smaller parties actually controlling the policies, and transfers the decision about who is to run the country from the people to party fixers, while generating weak governments, but through the system used in Switzerland.
We have visited that beautiful country every year for over twenty years, until stopped by the pandemic, and have many Swiss friends. Their system of referenda, by which major strategic decisions are taken, ensures that it is really the will of the people which is honoured, not the wishes of the political class. We could implement a similar concept here, in which, if sufficiently large enough support, a figure as agreed in the constitution, is gained for a proposition, the matter then goes to a binding referendum. In Switzerland that method has prevented self interested Swiss politicians from joining the EU over the wishes of the voters.
I suspect that those who constantly characterise our first past the post system as undemocratic would baulk at the thought of allowing regular referenda in the UK, as they are aware that the innate good sense of the British people would ensure that the agendas of obsessive minorities would get short shrift.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 3rd September 2021
In 1939 Leo Amery utered his famous admonition "Speak for England" during the critical Commons debate on the German invasion of Poland and we in Tonbridge should applaud our MP, Tom Tugendhat, for his similarly powerful speech on the debacle in Afghanistan.
The absurd obsession of the American political class with gender and cultural wars, to the exclusion of issues of real import, has led to probably the worst administration since the disastrous days of Herbert Hoover, with both the Presidency and Congress dominated by those who are consumed with the desire to argue about the inconsequential, while ignoring the truly significant. Not only has this already led to the betrayal of the people of Afghanistan, especially the women, but it has cast into doubt the future of the American place in the world, and to the future of NATO.
I am disgusted by the manner in which Western governments have scuttled out of Afghanistan, leaving the people to their fate. The inevitable result will be a resurgence of terrorist activity around the world, while the decent people of Afghanistan will once again be subjected to a mediaeval regime of bigots. It will embolden China, Iran and Russia, and make the world a more dangerous place for democracy. I dread to think of how of our troops those maimed in the conflict must now feel, while the loved ones of those killed must believe that they died in vain.
For us the lesson must be that, as America apparently reverts to inter war isolationism, we must look to our defences. Obviously we are no longer the paramount military power in the world, as we were for over a century, but we are nevertheless, along with France, the only European nation which could, in the absence of American forces, resist an onslaught from the East. We must ensure that we are like a nest of hornets, sufficiently strong to make attacking us not worthwhile. This will entail immense cost, but, if American involvement in Western defences is to be curtailed, then it will be the only way to preserve our liberties.
I tremble for the future of those nations, such as Israel and Taiwan, for whom the retreat of the US to Fortress America will spell doom.
Kent Messenger - 2nd September 2021
In the past few days those of us attempting to go about our business in London have been seriously inconvenienced by the activities of Extinction Rebellion leading to blocked streets.
However at the same time we learn that one of the founders of this organisation, when taxed with why she drives a diesel car, said that she couldn't afford an electric car, but that she needed to take her children to sports fixtures. At the same time one of the volunteers said that he could not afford solar panels, as the average cost was six thousand pounds.
Are these people so steeped in their self righteous, holier-than-thou mindset that they cannot understand that it is precisely because ordinary people cannot afford to be deprived of their cars, or gas boilers, that they oppose the demands of these extremists? They are either not very bright, or blatant hypocrites, when they demand that we should sacrifice our standard of living at a time when China is intending to build hundreds of new coal fired power stations, their emissions already dwarfing ours.
It is time that our politicians, and police, stopped treating these people with kid gloves, and prevented their adolescent posturing disrupting the lives of ordinary people.
Kent Messenger - 26th August 2021
Our local MP Tom Tugendhat deserves praise for his courage in putting forward the moral case concerning Afghanistan, whatever the political cost to himself may be. This is in addition to the manner in which, as Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee he has defied the totalitarians of China.
I am disgusted by the manner in which Western governments have scuttled out of Afghanistan, leaving the people, in particular the women, to their fate. The inevitable result will be a resurgence of terrorist activity around the world, while the decent people of Afghanistan will once again be subjected to a mediaeval regime of bigots. It will embolden China, Iran and Russia, and make the world a more dangerous place for democracy. I dread to think of how of our troops those maimed in the conflict must now feel, while the loved ones of those killed must believe that they died in vain.
It is a tragedy that the American political class continues to obsess over nonsensical gender and culture wars, while all around them the house is burning down, and must now call into question how much we can rely upon NATO, as America apparently reverts to inter war isolationism. Obviously we are no longer the paramount military power in the world, as we were for over a century, but we are nevertheless, along with France, the only European nation which could, in the absence of American forces, resist an onslaught from the East.
We must ensure that we are like a nest of hornets, sufficiently strong to make attacking us not worthwhile. To do this we need to massively increase the size of the Army, and the RAF, while building a great many more Naval warships, including a large number of smaller frigates to guard our coasts, not least from the tide of illegal immigration, undoubtedly including covert terrorists, crossing the Channel. In addition our military hardware should be built in the UK, necessitating reopening shipyards, and steelworks, while the insane policy of selling our most vital armament manufacturers to foreign owners must be stopped, and reversed. Importantly we must have a larger nuclear deterrent, which is fully independent of American control. All this would involve great expense, but that is the price of liberty.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 20th August 2021
The pandemic is no one's fault, at least no one in this country, yet the effects have been devastating in many areas, particularly in the field of education. The youngsters have endured an unprecedented interruption to their schooling, while teachers have been placed in an impossible position.
However it is pointless to join the Red Queen in Alice in believing six impossible things before breakfast, so the rapture with which the large increase in numbers of top grades has been greeted is foolish. A comparison between the last two years, when teacher assessments were the determining factor, and those of any year previously, makes clear that there has been a massive upgrading of results, which, given that so many children were out of school for long periods, is logically implausible. The inevitable outcome will be that in future years these results will carry less weight with potential employers. It is understandable that teachers wish the best for their pupils, but it is also true that they are in fact now marking their own homework, as a record for producing large numbers of top grades will hardly harm their CVs. After all most of us would not be happy if the quality control on new cars was carried out by those who assembled them.
What is clear is that when the teachers' unions, and the Labour Party, complain about the gap in attainment between private and state schools it is the height of hypocrisy. It was they, supported by politicians of the left of the Conservative party, who consistently undermined the system bestowed to us by the genuine social radicals of the post war years, closing grammar schools which provided a comparable education to that available at fee paying establishments. It was arrogant elitists such as Richard Crossman, and Shirley Williams, with their supposed egalitarianism, who ensured that the ladder of excellence which they had ascended was pulled up behind them, the comprehensive system failing both bright pupils, and those who would have benefited from a more vocational education at the technical colleges. Those on the Left who seek the culprits for the educational gap should look in the mirror.
Exams must be reinstated for next year if the whole education system is not to fall into complete disrepute.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 13th August 2021
Most people will not have heard of Clarence Harry Willcock, an unsung hero of British democracy. He was the last person in Britain to be prosecuted for refusing to produce an identity card, and his case, which became a cause celebre, influenced Winston Churchill's decision to scrap ID cards.
In 1951, he was given an absolute discharge, and in the judgment, Lord Chief Justice Goddard said the 1939 Act was "never passed for the purposes for which it is now apparently being used" and that using the law in this way "tends to turn law-abiding subjects into lawbreakers as such action tends to make the people resentful of the acts of the police." What this proves is emergency measures tend to extend in duration and purpose, usually to the disadvantage of citizens. In the wake of 9/11, Prime Minister Tony Blair told us we couldn't possibly fight terrorism without them, but Boris Johnson vociferously opposed the idea, noting the inevitability of mission creep, saying in 2004 that if he was asked to show his ID, he would physically eat it.
We fought the Second World War partly so that, unlike much of the world, our citizens would not be confronted with the demand "Papers", while going about their lives. We can be sure that those given a little authority, would take a delight in harassing ordinary people, backed by the force of the law. Those who do not possess smartphones, or a mastery of computer technology, would also find themselves second class citizens, regarded with suspicion, and even sanctioned, for not showing the proofs demanded by petty officials.
If the authoritarian instincts of the bureaucrats are allowed to prevail we risk all those liberties for which so many died, as we can be sure that the presumption of innocence would be undermined. Respect for the police would diminish, as the British would not take kindly to being forced to produce proof of their identity, while those workers charged with checking such proofs would be placed in an invidious position.
Boris must wake up, and reject all proposals which would lead to this slippery slope to an authoritarian regime in Britain. Modern technology would ensure that, once the principle of such items as vaccine passports were accepted, they would swiftly evolve into a national ID system. Mr Willcock's fight against the paper ID cards would have been in vain, as Orwell's Big Brother state's use of IT would make them appear benign in comparison.
Kent Messenger - 12th August 2021
Unsurprisingly, in his response to my letter, Ray Duff fails to understand the point I was making about all the dire warnings with which we are constantly assailed.
The supposed threats facing us, rather than being unbiased assessments of reality, are calculated to gain support for the policies of the liberal left. Prognostications of doom from extreme environmentalists always involve us giving up our affordable cars, and heated homes, those from the social warriors about supposed racism insist that the white population should admit to offences of which the vast majority are innocent, while attacks on the use of so called inappropriate language are in fact attempts to limit free speech and stifle debate.
It may be that within the left wing bubble inhabited by Mr Duff the government has been called morally bankrupt and incompetent, but it must have escaped his notice that it is in power because a majority of voters wished it to be so, and that opinion polls show strong support for its policies.
Perhaps he might like to ask the ordinary people of Dover whether they are quite so enthusiastic as he appears to be for illegal immigration across the Channel by largely economic migrants to continue, while his claim that variations in climate is irrefutably linked to human activity is no more than an assertion, particularly as many scientists accept that one cannot draw such a conclusion from single events.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 30th July 2021
In response to the continual unpleasant attacks on Boris Johnson by Tony Sykes I am sure that no one faced with the coronavirus emergency would have been able to find the perfect course to follow, and that most would have done far worse. Indeed one only has to contemplate what would have happened if Corbyn, and the far left had won the last general election.
However many of those of us who are grateful to Boris for his support during the Brexit imbroglio are concerned that, despite having the backing of excellent ministers such as Dominic Raab, he seems to be allowing himself to be dragged towards the policies of the liberal left on a number of issues. This may be because of his near death experience, or perhaps his desire not to be confrontational, but he must reassess his position before he undermines his position with his natural constituency.
His constant description of the EU nations as our friends and partners is clearly unjustified, given their attitude on vaccine supplies, Northern Ireland and the flow of illegal migrants arriving across the channel. The first of this seems settled, but we must now stand up to the Brussels bullies on the latter issues. He is also not opposing the cancel culture strongly enough as its advocates seek to undermine our society, supposedly in the name of diversity, while his surrender to the environmental lobby threatens not merely our access to affordable cars, but even to our ability to heat our own homes.
I regret very much that Boris seems to have lost his way, and hope that he will return to being the spokesman for the majority which he once was. If not then perhaps he should make way for a firmer leader such as Priti Patel.
Kent Messenger - 22nd July 2021
I cannot be alone in being weary of the relentless negativity dominating what passes for public discourse these days. We are constantly being warned, or told we have to face up to, a wide variety of possible scenarios which threaten disaster. When did we last hear a so called think tank, pressure group, or professional organisation offer an optimistic view of the future.
The year I was born the country nearly ran out of energy, rationing was worsening, and the NHS did not exist, while, in the decades that followed, we came close to nuclear war, while social disorders came and went. However I do not recall such a constant pall of pessimism as that we now face, over every little thing from our use of cars to the food we eat. Yes, we need to be concerned about some issues such as neglect of the defence of the realm, but we do not need harassing about almost everything.
When Keynes became exasperated about the constant questioning of the long term effects of his proposals he said 'in the long run we're all dead', a good answer to those who nag us constantly about what might be, rather than what is. These dystopian views of the future would be enough to dispirit anyone, let alone those prone to depression, so perhaps we should all try to cheer up, as it might never happen.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 16th July 2021
While the vaccination programme seems to offer an end to the pandemic this nightmare period leaves a legacy in the horrifying realisation that, even from the best of intentions, we have travelled far down the road to becoming a surveillance society.
Whereas previously one could live freely, without let or hinderance, we have been faced with registering our movements whenever we use shops, restaurants and places of entertainment, such as cinemas. Even worse is the treatment meted out to those who either through permitted foreign travel, or as a response to the dreaded ping of Test and Trace, have been subjected to harassment in their own homes. Friends, both double jabbed weeks ago, were nevertheless obliged to remain at home for a week, and, in addition to daily telephone calls checking their presence, were visited by an inspector who demanded to see their driving licences to prove that they were telling the truth about their identities. How dare these reincarnations of the worse sort of the petty officious tyrants we remember from ARP wardens in the war treat innocent citizens as liars, unless proved otherwise?
The restrictions were imposed with good intentions, and hopefully will soon come to an end, but this interruption to normality is a warning as to how easily our freedoms could be lost, not next time for benign reasons, but for the good of the party in power.
Kent Messenger - 15th July 2021
The comments by John Helm concerning the Crimea are reminiscent of those by Chamberlain in 1938 concerning Czechoslovakia, when he said "How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas masks here because of a quarrel in a far-away country between people of whom we know nothing.".
It is always possible to bury one's head in the sand, and ignore everything that does not immediately impinge upon our security, but as Churchill said "An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last.". Surely the lessons of the 1930 should have taught us that appeasement does not work.
Not only does the survival of the UK depend upon keeping the sea lanes open, but if we were to disinterest ourselves until enemy air or sea fleets directly threaten us it would be too late.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 11th June 2021
I am aware that many people will express their disagreement with my opinions, as is their absolute right in a democracy, but I was amazed at the apparent lack of basic knowledge displayed by Susie Rotberg in her attack upon my recent comments. She questions my assertion that no decent German would, in the 1930s, have felt proud of their country. Has is entirely escaped her notice that, in that period, Germany was persecuting their Jewish citizens, while laying the groundwork for both the Holocaust, and the launching of the Second World War. No German who believed in their country at that point could be described as decent.
She also seems to believe that pointing out a potential danger indicates that one is guilty of being frightened, rather than doing their duty by alerting others to what is happening. When Churchill warned about Nazi Germany, or Orwell later exposed the threat from Stalin, and our own intelligentsia, were those men just timid types, who should have said nothing, or rather men who deserved praise for refusing to bury their heads in the sand.
I see no relevance as to whether one lives in a gritty urban environment, or in what Ms Rotberg describes as leafy Kent, as the human soul can be as oppressed in the latter, as in the former. She asks who is forcing us to police our thoughts, and I can tell her that it is an ongoing and growing process, whereby many people are suffering the loss of reputation, employment, or even of liberty, for daring to stand against the tide of political correctness, indeed arrant nonsense, infesting our country. The persecution of academics, and students, at a number of universities, for daring to defy the fashionable dogmas is evidence enough of this.
Thankfully there is a fightback taking place against those who would distort our culture beyond recognition, and one can only hope that these hardcore extremists will eventually be defeated. However this will not happen unless people are prepared to stand up for the values of the sane majority.
Kent Messenger - 10th June 2021
In recent months we have seen climate change activists block roads, interfere with the journeys of rail commuters, attack commercial buildings, and even attempt to censor our daily newspapers. Ostensibly they do this in the name of a theory that the planet is undergoing a dangerous episode of warming, brought about by the emissions emanating from human activity. They claim that they are either 'drawing attention' to the problem, something hardly required, given that we have all been exposed to their views ad nauseam, or that they are taking direct action aimed at stopping those activities which they deem unacceptable. However it is noticeable that these gestures are all directed at Western enterprises.
It has just been announced that the number of coal-fired power stations granted approval globally has risen for the first time since 2015, with China making up two thirds of all plans for such plants, as the Chinese regime approved a 45pc increase on 2019 levels. In contrast the UK has largely phased out such power plants, in 2019 coal accounting for 2.8pc of total UK energy, including power generation and blast-furnaces for steel making.
It is not difficult to identify the reasons for Extinction Rebellion failing to, for instance, demonstrate outside the Chinese Embassy, or organise a boycott of Chinese goods. While many of their supporters are gullible idealists, who think that they are responding to a higher moral imperative, the driving force behind this organisation, just as it is behind other such protest groups such as Black Lives Matter, and Stop the War, is an ingrained hatred of Western civilisation, arising from the anarchistic and nihilistic philosophies which have always inspired such people.
I remember when, at a time when Labour was devoted to democratic socialism, it issued lists of proscribed undemocratic organisations, whose members sought to infiltrate the party in order to subvert its aims. I have no doubt that had groups such as Extinction Rebellion existed in those days, they would have been included in such lists.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 4th June 2021
Those who, having previously roundly condemned Dominic Cummings as the godfather of Brexit, now treat him as if he were Moses descending the mountain with the Ten Commandments, are not merely hypocrites, but are giving him too much credit for his contribution to the triumph of the Leave campaign. He was only four years old when I, and many others, were delivering leaflets advocating leaving the European project during the 1975 referendum, while he would have been at school when I was sitting on committees with the likes of Peter Shore, the great Labour figure, whose opposition to a federal Europe was heartfelt, and, as later proved, totally correct. I am sure that Boris, whose contribution to achieving Brexit dwarfs that of Cummings, would deny that, as Isaac Newton said 'if I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants'.
There is no doubt that Cummings was a significant member of the campaign to vote leave in 2016, but no more than that, and those of us who welcomed his efforts are under no obligation to accept that, if we reject his his strictures on the Covid emergency, we are in anyway being hypocritical, unlike those who now laud him, after having previously treated him as the devil incarnate.
It is easy to attack Boris with the benefit of hindsight, but I very much doubt that anyone could have dealt with the situation without mistakes being made. It is regrettable that Cummings has chosen the path of spiteful revenge for his dismissal, but I doubt many will be deceived by his claims.
Kent Messenger - 3rd June 2021
At the height of the Terror, during the French Revolution, anyone denounced anonymously as an enemy of the people went to the guillotine, without a trial, or any opportunity to defend themselves.
One would have thought that no intelligent person would regard this practice as anything but abhorrent yet we now learn that the authorities at Cambridge, which like to regard it as one of our best universities, are trying to instigate a system, similar in method, although with less violent sanctions, which seeks to create a means of anyone deemed, by unnamed accusers, to have offended against the principles of 'woke' to be condemned, and punished.
Unfortunately the dictatorial and biased mindset which can contemplate such an action pervades our entire university network, and indeed extends downwards to schools, as is evidenced by the spread of anti semitism throughout the education system, with children, having been subjected to left wing brainwashing, taking part anti Israeli demonstrations. Many Jewish students at a number of different universities, are reporting anti semitic abuse, and worse, committed by those who are consumed by hatred for Jews. One would have thought that, as undergraduates are supposed to be the most intelligent of their generation, such primeval prejudice would not arise in these so called temples of learning.
Did my parents, in order to defeat the Nazis, endure nearly six years of war, and lose their house to a German bomb in 1940, only for the evil philosophy which animated the Third Reich to be allowed to take hold in our country? This despicable development arises because of those such as one professor who accused his university's Jewish Society as being "pawns for a violent, racist, foreign regime engaged in ethnic cleansing". Clearly, for the extremists of 'woke', hate crimes do not exist if they emanate from their own supporters.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 28th May 2021
I see that Richard Landolt, one of the spokesmen for the dwindling rump of Remainers, accuses me of advocating 'England first', as if this was a bad thing. If I were French I would put France first, or if Scottish, Scotland first, it being the most natural thing in the world to support one's own nation, particularly when, as is the case with England, it is the finest in the world. Obviously were one to have been a decent German in the 1930s one would not have been proud of one's country, but we in England should have no qualms about expressing our patriotism. It is of course typical of those who take the knee to Brussels to despise their own nation, but such has always been the way with a particularly vociferous section of our society.
Those Mr Landholt describes as my old bogeymen are no less guilty for being regularly mentioned, as they are still there, doing their best to undermine our society. However I notice he leaves the BBC off the list, and once again this organisation is in the spotlight, as the independent inquiry by retired judge Lord Dyson found that interviewer Martin Bashir was deceitful, and faked documents to obtain his interview with Princess Diana, while the BBC's investigation led by Lord Hall into the initial complaints was woefully ineffective. Even our future King has spoken out to condemn this utter failure to uphold responsible journalism.
This so called national broadcaster long ago betrayed its duty to present an unbiased coverage of events, declaring that no further debate on climate change would be permitted, while acting as a propaganda outlet for the Remainers before, during, and after the Brexit referendum. Its arrogant supposed journalists believe that they can never be wrong, and the senior management's default position is denial, and an attempt to dismiss all complaints as unjustified.
It is time that the BBC was reformed root and branch, if it is to continue receiving one penny from the licence fee imposed on everyone with a radio or TV set.
Kent Messenger - 27th May 2021
China has oppressed the Tibetan people for generations, and now is repressing their Uighur minority, while in Burma that heroine of the liberals Aung Suu Kyi connived at the persecution of the Rohingya, and the military are now shooting protestors. However, apart from protests by their own nationals, no mass marches were held in the UK over these gross abuses of human rights.
However when Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, responds to attacks by barrages of rockets from a neighbouring territory, out come Rent-A-Mob, yelling about the persecution of Arab minorities, when in fact those living in Israel have more rights than of their fellows in nearby nations. Clearly, to the militant Left, all the ills of the world can be blamed on the West, in particular the USA, the UK and Israel, while those countries opposed to us are to be given a free pass.
In view of the despicable behaviour of those threatening Jewish people in London can anyone doubt that the driving force behind all this is the most ancient hatred of all, anti semitism, coupled with a belief that democratic, capitalist nations are always in the wrong.
Unfortunately this is all too predictable, much as it is clear from some of your correspondents that those who cannot answer points made, resort to attacking the person making them.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 21st May 2021
Recently I bought a new car which came with all the contemporary bells and whistles concerning safety. However it nags so badly that, had it been a wife in the middle ages, it would have been a candidate for the ducking stool. It is petulant to the point that unless I confirm every time I turn it on that I accept responsibility for driving it won't let me access the radio. I think I know that without being told, as I didn't think it was the cat.
I can turn off most of the inconsequential complaints, but unfortunately that is not the case when it comes to the barrage of whingeing daily afflicting us from the combination of busybodies, scaremongers and politically correct fanatics, many of whom would have been willing Stasi informants in the old days of the GDR.
I am tired of those of us who are heterosexual being treated as giving offence if saying that we find the opposite sex attractive, of those such as myself who regard Winston Churchill as the greatest ever Englishman, and regard our history with pride, as being some sort of closet supporter of slavery, of being condemned for the crime of being Caucasian, or of using the English language as we have known it for our whole lives as indicating some hidden antipathy towards others. This is not to say that I would ever be deliberately unkind, or rude, to anyone because of their race, sex etc. as such behaviour is not part of my makeup, or of that of the vast majority of ordinary people.
I am not going to forgo the simple pleasure of driving the family to the coast because of environmental obsessives, nor 'take the knee' to a Marxist organisation because of the deplorable behaviour of a foreign police force, however much these various activists may complain.
It is time we fought back against these extremists. On truism attributed to Churchill among others is that "a fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject", which describes so many of those bossing us about these days. When told that, in relation to some inoffensive remark, "you can't say that", we should respond "I can, and I will", while the demand that we police ourselves concerning our innermost thoughts should be dismissed with contempt. Finally leave the morons of social media to shout at each other, and lead our lives as adults, not the infantilised victims of arrogant know it all bigots.
Kent Messenger - 20th May 2021
Following last week's elections several friends are berating themselves for their failure to vote as, despite wishing to see an end to Sadiq Khan's time as London Mayor, they believed incorrectly that the result was a forgone conclusion. This raises the question of why on earth people continue to believe in opinion polls, when they have for so long often proved to be wildly inaccurate.
In the USA the most egregious example remains Gallop in 1948 predicting that Thomas Dewey would beat Harry Truman in the presidential race, while the 2016 election of Donald Trump proved once again that the polls were wrong.
Those old enough will recall that in this country the elections of the early 1970s, contested by Edward Heath and Harold Wilson, produced results completely contrary to the predictions made by polls, while the most glaring error was the poll that, on the morning of the 2016 referendum, stated that Remain would win by twenty per cent. Most also failed to anticipate the scale of the Conservative victory in 2019.
I have always voted for that in which I believe, disregarding the polls, even when, as was the case for so many years, those such as myself, who opposed UK membership of the EU were treated as some sort of lunatic fringe. The right to vote is precious, and should not be treated with contempt. Those who opposed Khan, yet failed to vote, must now endure more years of his reign. Perhaps in future they will treat opinion polls with the scorn they deserve, and realise that the only poll that counts is the one held at the ballot box.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 14th May 2021
Given the contemporary reality in the USA those who have never studied American politics may be surprised to know that at the time of the Civil War it was the Republicans who were the left wing party. In a similar way in the UK, the result of the Hartlepool by-election, indicates that we are moving in the direction of the Conservatives becoming the party of the working class, while Labour joins the other left wing parties in only speaking for the metropolitan liberal, pro EU elite. By doing so it is following a road which could result in its oblivion as a serious political force.
It is unsurprising that the massively Leave supporting working class electorate in Teesside, who have endured decades of neglect by London politicians, should reject a party that had the arrogance to choose a pro EU candidate, at a time when the Conservative government is actively taking steps to bring jobs and economic prosperity to the area.
The main risk to the Conservatives is that the education system, both in schools and universities, is dominated by the liberal left, with the result that youngsters are being brainwashed to support the policies of the latter, while the BBC can be relied upon to present a totally biased view, favouring such ideas. The current influence being exercised by the so called 'woke', including the extremist agenda of the environmentalists, also presents a danger to common-sense policies, although the fact that the Green candidate only gained just over one per cent of the vote in Hartlepool makes clear that ordinary people do not support the ridiculous demands made by these obsessives.
If the Conservative party holds its nerve, and does not revert to its old position of merely representing the well off, it can secure its place as the governing party for many years to come.
Kent Messenger - 13th May 2021
Terry Wright's description of myself as a Tory apologist shows his lack of understanding of political developments, as I am a lifelong trade unionist, and would better describe myself as a disappointed Attlee socialist. I have never been a member of the Conservative party, but see Boris as a Tory maverick, who is carrying out policies supportive of the ordinary people, not, as so often with Conservative governments, merely in the interests of the well off.
I support grammar schools, introduced by Attlee when he implemented the 1944 Education Act, while it was his government that first created the independent nuclear deterrent, something I believe necessary for our safety. After centuries of persecution, and in particular the Holocaust, I think it only right that the Jewish people should have their own state, itself established with Labour support under Attlee. It was also the latter, later followed by another great Labour figure Hugh Gaitskill, who rejected involvement with what later evolved into the European Union. These policies make clear that so much of what Mr Wright would no doubt describe as Tory, was in fact enacted, or at least endorsed by the most successful Labour government in history. It is the political spectrum that has changed, and not for the better.
I suspect that Mr Wright resents the fact that correspondents are permitted to express political opinions that do not accord with the wishes of the liberal consensus which has dominated debate for many years. This attitude pervades social media, which is one reason that I would not touch the latter with a bargepole.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 7th May 2021
Only the obsessives of the Westminster village believe that the average person is desperately concerned about the decoration of the Downing Street flat, which Boris does not own, and will eventually pass to new occupants, hopefully not for many years. However, at a time when we are still recovering from a pandemic we are witnessing a tidal wave of pious hypocrisy and synthetic anger over the modifications being made.
The metropolitan elite, and the Heathite wing of the Conservative party, have joined forces to attack Boris because they loathe him for having successfully implemented Brexit, and, knowing that they have no popular issue on which they can defeat him at the ballot box, are trying to oust him by other means. Unsurprisingly they are supported by the BBC, and the left wing media, plus the Electoral Commission, which I know from my time campaigning against EU membership is totally pro Remain. The higher ranks of the Civil Service still yearn for the days when they could join their fellow bureaucrats in Brussels in forwarding their own agendas, without effective interference from elected representatives. These latter also wish to undermine Priti Patel, the only Home Secretary in decades who shares the views of a majority of the people on such matters as the proper reaction to violent crime.
Boris succeeded in carrying out the policy for which the British people voted in 2016, while, contrary to the absurd allegation made by Tony Sykes, he has also presided over one of the most successful vaccination programmes in the world. He has also made great strides in fulfilling his pledge to offer hope to those parts of the country neglected for so long for, as one whose wife comes from Teesside, I am only too aware of how the working class in the North has been ignored by London for many years, but now steps are being taken to correct this situation.
I am aware that his private life would not meet with the approval of my priest, but the last time a non smoking, teetotal vegetarian was in power he led the Third Reich into launching the Second World War, which puts in proportion the human failings of which most of us are guilty at times. Far from his tenure being ended it is essential that Boris remains to complete the programme upon which he was enthusiastically elected at the last general election.
Kent Messenger - 6th May 2021
At a time when we are still attempting to recover from a pandemic we are being subjected to a tsunami of pious hypocrisy and synthetic anger over modifications to a Downing Street flat.
An unholy alliance of the metropolitan elite, and the Heathite wing of the Conservative party loathe Boris for having successfully implemented Brexit, and, knowing that they cannot defeat him at the ballot box, are trying to oust him by other means. In this they are supported by the BBC, and the left wing media, plus the pro Remain Electoral Commission, and the higher ranks of the Civil Service, who still yearn for the days when they could join their fellow bureaucrats in Brussels in forwarding their own agendas without effective interference from elected representatives.
Not only has Boris succeeded in carrying out the policy for which the British people voted in 2016, but he has also presided over one of the most successful vaccination programmes in the world, while making great strides in fulfilling his pledge to offer hope to those parts of the country neglected for so long. As one whose wife comes from Teesside I am only too aware of how the working class in the North East has been ignored by London for many years, but now steps are being taken to correct this situation.
Only the obsessives of the Westminster bubble believe that the average person is in anyway concerned about the decoration of a flat, which Boris does not own, and will eventually pass to new occupants, hopefully not for many years.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 30th April 2021
Those associated with the abortive Super League, who claim that such schemes are necessary to save football, are talking nonsense. Football is the quintessential working class game, being a part of the community in such areas, and engendering loyalty based on local pride, not international success. I have supported Charlton Athletic since the 1950s, and my wife has supported Middlesbrough for the same amount of time, while we both follow Tonbridge Angels, of which I am one of the many fans who are also part owners My father's generation would regularly watch the amateurs from the local factory teams, and the players, even in the main leagues, were usually drawn from the local area.
It is rather the obscene amounts of money provided by the TV companies which have undermined the ethos of the game, and it is gratifying that at least this particular idea has sunk without trace.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 23rd April 2021
Clearly your correspondents who supported Remain are determined to continue living in a fantasy world, where the EU is the promised land, and the UK the doomed dystopia, so it would be instructive to review the track record of the Europhiles. In the early 1990s they took us into the ERM, which, was a disaster, until White Wednesday saved us, while all those who tried to force us to join the Euro a few years later have been left with egg on their faces, as the hopes of the younger generation of the southern European member states for a prosperous future have been sacrificed on the altar of the single currency.
In the lead up to the referendum it was predicted that 500,000 jobs would be lost, but, until Covid hit, a million had been added to the number employed; George Osborne said that every household would lose 4,300 pounds per annum, but the reality is a gain of over 5,000 pounds; a punishment budget was forecast, which did not materialise; accountants PWC predicted 100,000 job losses in financial service, but so far it is less than 8,000. Finally David Cameron warned of World War Three, but here we still are.
Tony Sykes' claim that Brexit was won by lies is itself completely untrue, and when Steve Barrass says that the EU has moved on they certainly have, further into a disastrous economic morass, while we can enjoy, not suffer, the marvellous consequences of regaining our freedom from Brussels.
Kent Messenger - 22nd April 2021
Baroness Shirley William, who died recently, was a decent, kindly woman, who unfortunately typified the naive liberals who do so much unintended damage. On foreign policy she was an advocate of nuclear disarmament, ignoring both the fact that such weapons cannot be uninvented, and that their possession by the major powers has prevented a conventional conflict on the scale of the two word wars. On Europe she was in favour of transferring effective governance of the UK from elected representatives at Westminster to Brussels bureaucrats, an error that has now thankfully been corrected.
As far as domestic policies are concerned she, together with Richard Crossman, both of whom attended private, fee paying, educational establishments, was responsible for the attack upon grammar schools, the means by which working class children, including myself, were able to climb the ladder of educational achievement. The results of this policy are with us still, the gradual decline in standards being obvious, now cumulating in a university declaring that it was not necessary for undergraduates to know how to spell, or to use grammar correctly. Such pupils in my generation would not have gained sufficient A levels to win a place at any university.
Fortunately for youngsters in Kent the destruction of the grammar schools was not universal, so some can still benefit from their existence, and, for the sake of children across the country, it is time that the policy of preventing the creation of such schools was reversed.
Shirley Williams was a shining example of those who prove that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Kent Messenger - 15th April 2021
In his response to my comments Ralph Tebbutt ignores the main argument for constitutional monarchy, which is that the division of symbolic from executive power is a bulwark against an elected dictatorship. It is anyway absurd to believe that to replace the Queen with President Blair, or Boris, would of itself improve the lot of the economically disadvantaged. The continuity and stability afforded by our system must not be tossed lightly aside.
Although republicans have been around for many years they have now become, whether deliberately or not, part of the radical left movement which seeks to undermine our society from within. The areas where one can see the most malign influences are the politics of identity, particularly concerning sex, and race. The manner in which gender, and sexual orientation, have become battlegrounds is due to the desire of these same people to involve as many minorities as possible in a coalition which hates everything this country stands for, and seeks to subject the majority to their rule by corrupting our language, and by suppressing free speech. Their virtue signalling is sickening, as they are anything but virtuous.
The reaction to the recent report by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities proves, if proof was needed, that those who have dominated debate on race in this country for many years are not driven by morality, but by left wing ideology. Although there are those who hate others merely because of the category into which they fall, the majority of Britons are mostly easy going, and consider fairness to be a virtue. If however, perfectly innocent people find themselves constantly demonised merely on the basis of their being white, they will react with anger. The result will not be better race relations, but a polarisation in society. Of course this is precisely what the Marxists want, as they continue to believe that causing social upheaval will give them the opportunity to gain power, before instituting their socialist nirvana. It seems to pass them by that this never works, and that they end up with regimes which crush them, but that's what you get when you insist on following the ideas of foolishly idealistic nineteenth century intellectuals, instead of genuinely seeking a better world.
It is deplorable the way in which vacuous celebrities seek to prove how wonderfully moral and virtuous they are by competing with each other to condemn people they don't know as racists, just because they dare to disagree with the propaganda put out by the hard left, while the the manner in which our universities have largely been taken over by Marxist academics ensures that the only acceptable views are those which emulate Orwell's sheep in his great parody Animal Farm, chanting 'Woke good, non woke bad', so students who do not subscribe to this philosophy are marginalised, and treated as guilty of racism. Unfortunately our young people have been so brainwashed by the Marxists who have infiltrated our educational institutions, aided and abetted by those such as the disgrace which still calls itself the 'British' Broadcasting Corporation, that they accept these lies.
Contrary to Mr Tebbutt's assertion, the deliberate distortion of history being taught to our young people is undermining not only their education, but our democratic society.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 9th April 2021
I am constantly astounded by the extent of the self deception displayed by irreconcilable acolytes of the EU, who are living examples of those who were the subject of the verse in Jeremiah 5:21 "Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not", although we know this better as 'there are none so blind as those who will not see'.
Tony Sykes talks of friends in the EU but, while individuals may have friends, as indeed I do in various Continental countries, nations are different for, as Viscount Palmerston said in a speech to the House of Commons in 1848 "We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow." For example, Germany may now be an ally, but I remember playing on bomb sites, and abandoned anti aircraft emplacements, in the 1950s, so would hesitate to regard her in the same benign light as I regard individual Germans. Those nations of the Indian sub continent, the West Indies, and others, who sent large numbers of men to fight on our side in both the world wars have a much better claim to be our friends than do those against whom we have fought many wars over the centuries.
In reality this is anyway irrelevant because it is the EU, not Europe, which is treating us as beyond the Pale, continuing to prosecute a totally irrational vaccine war, demanding vaccines, which it then refuses to use, while it is undermining peace in Northern Island with its interpretation of the Brexit agreement.
In addition those like Steve Barrass, who still think that the European Parliament is of any relevance, should wake up to the fact that the EU is run by the European Commission, a bunch of unelected, incompetent, second rate bureaucrats, who are trying to cover up their failings by lashing out at the UK. Contrary to Mr Barrass I am grateful that for once we have a Prime Minister who seeks to implement the wishes of the British people, not those of the metropolitan elite.
Kent Messenger - 8th April 2021
Last week's letter from Kent CND was like receiving a communication from the age of the dinosaurs, as one would have thought that historical events since the Aldermaston marches of over sixty years ago would have proved conclusively that the policy of the unilateralists had been thoroughly debunked.
Had those naive demonstrators, manipulated by fellow travellers who wished to see the triumph of Communism, succeeded in their aim of fatally weakening the West by throwing away our nuclear weapons, then, far from this evil ideology collapsing as it did, it would have been able to force us into surrender by threatening, or by using its own H-bombs. Can anyone who understands human nature doubt that, if Stalin, or his successors, had obtained a monopoly of such weapons, we would not have been obliged to yield or die? One does not defeat a bully by kneeling before him.
One wonders if the adherents of CND would have been quite so fond of disarming if the enemy had been Hitler, or perhaps a regime such as apartheid South Africa, as our survival would then have been at the cost of Jewish or black lives. Today North Korea, and potentially Iran, are among those whom we must face down.
I remember that, in the early 1960s, a group of sixth formers at my grammar school announced that they would not take their exams, as there was clearly no point, due to the fact that we were all going to die in a nuclear war. I doubt they went through with it, but they must now be retired, so look pretty foolish in retrospect, as indeed do those scientists who set the Doomsday clock to three minutes to midnight decades ago, and yet here we still are.
It is said that Lenin described those non communists who aided the Communist cause as 'useful idiots', and he would have included the well meaning, but gullible, marchers of the 1950s as part of that group. The reality is that CND could not have been more wrong. No rational person wants to use our nuclear weapons, but their very existence has kept us safe from those of others. It's called deterrence.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 2nd April 2021
The response of the Julian Wilson, Chairman of the Tonbridge Labour party to my comments on transport makes clear how far that party has strayed from its roots.
It should be remembered that the Labour party was largely created by a combination of the trade unions, and the non conformist movement. Indeed it was the latter that ensured that the party advocated democratic socialism, not the atheistic Marxism espoused by the Communists. Its aim was to improve the lot of the working class, in the face of the brutal poverty and exploitation the latter had faced since the industrial revolution. It was this philosophy that, back in the mists of time, earned the support of myself and so many others, as leaders such as Attlee and Gaitskill sought to fulfil the promise of a more equal society.
Since those days the party has become almost totally dominated by middle class professionals, whose concerns are very different to those of the working class. While paying lip service to the need to defend the interests of the workers, particularly in the North, the party gives far greater weight to its supposed internationalism, becoming exercised about those causes external to these islands, than it is about the plight of the children of working class parents, who are often unable to get a decent education, or find worthwhile employment.
The middle class obsession with unproven theories of climate change leads Labour politicians, admittedly in combination with the other main parties, to prioritise green policies, often at the expense of local communities, who see jobs lost in order to satisfy the demands of environmentalists.
Finally, Mr Wilson's comment about nuclear deterrence shows how much the party has changed since the days that Attlee first authorised their construction. Contrary to Mr Wilson's assertion these weapons are not pointless. No sane person wants to use them, but their very existence prevents others contemplating using them on us.
Kent Messenger - 1st April 2021
Remain supporters such as your correspondent K Browne refuse to recognize that repeating tired old canards about Brexit does not make them anymore valid.
To imply that support for Brexit is a policy of the Right is nonsense, as opposition to involvement in the European project was a consistent policy of the Left in the days before and since the time that the Conservatives took Britain into the EEC. To quote from a published letter from Tony Benn, hardly a standard bearer of the Right, "people in all the member states have been forced into surrendering their rights to a political class that does not represent us, is not accountable to us and to whom, therefore, we owe no loyalty or moral obligation whatsoever".
The accusation of xenophobia is equally false. I have friends on the Continent, have travelled widely there, and love European culture. I do not hate anything about Europe, but do despise the bureaucratic monster of the EU, a very different thing.
As far as the the defence offered by K Browne concerning the behaviour of the EU regarding vaccines, the facts are that the EU has shown itself willing to threaten to break contracts, and sequestrate commercial assets at will. Businesses will be reluctant to locate new ventures within its boundaries, and it seems inconceivable that large pharmaceutical companies would be happy to place their factories where they may be seized by unelected bureaucrats anxious to deflect blame for their own faults.
It is clear that the incompetence, and arrogance, of the European Commission, in its failure to organise the order, and rollout, of vaccines, followed by the subsequent farce of casting doubt on the Astrazeneca product, will have led to the unnecessary death of many EU citizens.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 26th March 2021
It is clear that the incompetence, and arrogance, of the European Commission, in its failure to organise the order, and rollout, of vaccines, followed by the subsequent farce of casting doubt on the Astrazeneca product, will have led to the unnecessary death of many EU citizens.
However, what has become even more obvious is that the very unaccountability of the rulers of the EU, targeted by those of us supporting Brexit, is now fully exposed, and has at last opened the eyes of many who did not previously appreciate its reality.
The peoples of Europe have found that they have no democratic means of influencing the actions of the Commission, and that the president of that body Ursula de van Leyden is able to impose decisions without the agreement of the democratically elected governments of the individual nation states.
As far as the UK is concerned the political and economic effects of these truths are proving significant. The latest opinion poll shows that sixty one per cent of those questioned want absolutely nothing to do with the political structures of the EU, while flows of capital from the EU to the UK are accelerating. As the EU has shown itself willing to threaten to break contracts, and sequestrate commercial assets at will, businesses will be reluctant to locate new ventures within its boundaries. It seems inconceivable that large pharmaceutical companies would be happy to place their factories in a country where they may be seized by unelected politicians anxious to deflect blame for their own faults.
Those of your correspondents who hope for a Rejoin movement to be successful should, to use the current idiom, wake up and smell the coffee, as their beloved EU is rapidly sinking into irrelevance, and is now anathema to the vast majority of the British people.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 19th March 2021
For some time extreme environmentalists have described those who do not subscribe to their theories on global warming as climate change deniers, in a transparent attempt to tar them with the same brush as those despicable people who deny the holocaust. Not only is this an insult to those who hold a perfectly respectable, albeit different, view to the Green movement, but it also belittles the reality of the greatest crime in human history.
Now however Steve Barrass tries an alternative narrative, conflating climate change sceptics with anti vaxers, and those who refuse to wear masks during this pandemic. This comparison is invalid as no sensible medical authority has promoted the idea that vaccines should be refused, or that masks are a bad thing, whereas there are many within the scientific community, including professors of Meteorology, who are not prepared to accept that the claims of environmentalists are indisputable.
My wife and I have worn face masks, and protective gloves, since first being made aware of the pandemic, and we were delighted to receive our vaccination the moment they became due. However I do not subscribe to the idea that we face a climate emergency which makes it necessary to introduce panic measures, without regard to the very negative effects the latter will have on our society.
It is clearly a good idea to take measures to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels, as these are finite on a human timescale, whereas energy from the Sun, tides and wind are only vulnerable on a geological timeframe. However this can be done over a sensible period, taking advantage of technological advances, without throwing the baby out with bathwater, as we can make huge changes over the coming decades which will put our industrial civilisation on a more permanent basis. To believe this is not, as Mr Barrass claims, to be 'septic', merely rational.
Kent Messenger - 18th March 2021
I am unsure as to what K A Chapman regards as 'right wing' in any comments I have made. Is it that I regard Churchill as the great man who saved democracy, and this nation, or that I support Brexit, a policy voted for by a majority of the British people, allowing us to take back our rightful place in the world, or perhaps that I oppose the distortion of our society by those determined to rewrite history, and portray one of the most tolerant societies in the word as in the grip of racists, homophobes etc? None of these perfectly respectable positions are the preserve of one part of the political spectrum, certainly not the right. It is not a question of disliking opponents as individuals, but of countering what are false assertions, made by those who wish to close down any debate on these matters.
As far as Terrence Wright attempts at humour are concerned, to describe those struggling to deal with the greatest peacetime emergency for a century as hapless is a cheap jibe aimed at undermining reasonable efforts to restore normality.
Incidentally that your columnist incorrectly describes the successful campaign to free these country as being packed full of demonstrable falsehoods makes clear that he, like many of your correspondents, is unwilling to ever accept not merely that they were defeated in the referendum, but that subsequent events have proved just how right we were to break with rule from Brussels.
Daily Mail - 12th March 2021
A comparison of the courage and determination of someone like Malala Yousafzai to the petulant whining of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex show the latter to be nothing more than pathetic self obsessed celebrities.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 12th March 2021
Contrary to the assertion by Julian Wilson, although a 20 mph limit is acceptable within Tonbridge town centre, it is absurd when applied to those routes such as the Pembury Road, or Quarry Hill Road, as the sloping nature of these makes it necessary to constantly apply the brakes, even in low gears, and ignores the fact that a 30 mph limit has been successfully applied for many years.
The constituency Labour party's support for greatly extended public transport may be idealistic, but it would be impossible to achieve without unacceptable rises in taxes, as no private company could expect to survive financially if it tried to operate the sufficiently comprehensive, and frequent service, which would be required.
The underlying belief that those who drive are selfish, and that those who walk or cycle are morally superior, takes no account of the fact that a large number of people are physically unable to do either. I was a volunteer driver in Tonbridge for six years, and I know that many of those I transported to hospitals etc. would have been quite unable to get there except by car.
The ultimate aim of campaigns restricting the sensible use of cars is to almost eliminate their use for leisure, and to make people ever more dependent on the goodwill of officialdom to provide alternatives, thus putting collectivist instincts ahead of individual freedom. No doubt a universal restriction of speed limits to 10 mph would prevent even more accidents, but it would also render car ownership pointless. The end of this particular road is the return of men with red flags waved before every car.
Kent Messenger - 4th March 2021
It is noticeable that much criticism is directed at the government in general, and Boris in particular, over the handling of the Covid crisis, yet I feel this is misplaced. Boris himself, having contributed greatly to the successful campaign to remove the UK from rule by Brussels, won a handsome majority in the General Election, and also achieved a deal with the EU which his detractors said was impossible. He then found himself in the unenviable position of one playing pass the parcel, in that he was in power when the music stopped, and the worst health crisis in a century exploded in his face.
Undoubtedly mistakes have been made, but I question whether anyone could have done better in such an emergency, certainly not the leaders of the alternative parties. The Cabinet, for once composed of people who actually seem to be seeking to keep their word to the electorate, have certainly stepped up to the plate, and despite constant attacks on his judgement and commitment, Matt Hancock stands out as one who has done all that he can to confront the virus.
The vaccine roll out has been better than anywhere else in the world, except Israel, for once even local councils doing a sterling job of organising rapid deployment. If only this foul plague can be suppressed then Boris will have the chance to show that his promises regarding Britain's bright future outside the EU can become a reality.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 19th February 2021
Bill Hickling derides the measures taken by the government to counter the pandemic as never tried before health measures, and claims that lockdowns have had little, or no, impact. In fact the only method those living in centuries when medicine was primitive was to attempt to isolate communities and individuals, from the segregation of lepers in biblical times, to those villages in the 14th century, who cut themselves off from the rest of the country to prevent the bubonic plague reaching them.
Of more concern is that, at a time when we seem to have a way out via vaccines, many people, including some health workers, are refusing to be jabbed. While a few may, for valid medical reasons, be unable to be vaccinated, there are many more who are refusing for specious reasons, thus putting the rest of the population in danger.
When one adds to these those who blatantly break the regulations in order to attend raves and parties it is clear that it is not the government which has reacted badly, but those who seem to expect to carry on as usual, despite the crisis.
Kent Messenger - 18th January 2021
S J Harrowell, in his response to my comments regarding the NHS, conflates the NHS bureaucracy with the front line workers, something which I explicitly did not do. I greatly admire the doctors, nurses and ancillary staff, who are performing herculean tasks every day. My criticism is directed at the pen pushers of the absurdly overpaid, and overstaffed, layers of pointless managers, together with the non profession of Human Resources, whose main function seems to be to produce endless policies which do nothing but obstruct those trying to do the real work. Many of these schemes arose because of the bureaucratic regulations emanating from Brussels, so are now no longer relevant.
As far as the teachers are concerned, at a time when brave NHS workers and others are risking their lives, the teachers' unions are making unreasonable demands, deliberately preventing the reopening of schools. This in no way reflects on the courage and dedication of teachers, but shows just how their union leaders are continuing to pursue their rigid, politically motivated, agenda whatever the consequences.
Contrary to Mr Harrowell's belief we are indeed being duped by the Chinese regime. The latter has managed to combine the economic strength of capitalism with the continuation of the power structure of Communism, and we have allowed them to inveigle their way into our infrastructure, without warning infect the whole world with a virus, and begin to undermine democracy everywhere. They have treated the agreement over Hong Kong with contempt, menaced Taiwan, and made invalid claims on the whole Asian area, attempting to browbeat India, even trying to cow Australia. We have foolishly permitted the lure of cheap products to allow much of our industry to gravitate to China. Again the arguments are trotted out that if we engage with them they will gradually become more like us. This is either a conscious lie, or such a misreading of the nature of their regime that it amounts to an insane delusion.
Finally no one is trying to stop Mr Harrowell having his say. Rather he seems to want to stop others having theirs.
Kent Messenger - 11th January 2021
Andrew South must live in a fantasy world where, like the Red Queen in Alice, he can believe six impossible things before breakfast.
He claims that the UK is a 'Remain' nation, thereby arguing that all those who chose not to vote in the 2016 referendum were supporters of Remain, a totally baseless assertion, while his belief that support for Remain has increased is laughable, when even well known commentators who opposed Brexit are now admitting that they were wrong. I have yet to meet one person who voted Leave who has changed their mind, in contrast to many who are now regretting their vote to stay.
The recent behaviour of the European Commission relating to the availability of vaccines against Covid has torn away the mask that the EU has worn of being a benign entity. The Eurocrats, having demonstrated fully that they are totally incompetent, by their failure to order the necessary number of jabs, then proved their arrogance by their bullying attempts to deprive the UK of our supply, which we ordered months before they did. Their attempts to impose a hard border in Ireland prove that the EU was always just using the Irish, about whom they care nothing, as dupes in their attempt to undermine Brexit. This fiasco is the direct result of handing power to make vital decisions to a bunch of corrupt apparatchiks, who are more concerned with preserving their gravy train of the European project than they are in saving the lives of their fellow citizens.
Mr South clearly has no understanding of the way in which we were becoming increasingly subject to laws made in Brussels, and only Brexit has prevented this process from continuing apace. As far as free trade is concerned we are already making agreements with countries around the world, something we could not have done had we remained in the EU. He chooses to belittle his own nation but we remain as the most important military power in Europe after Russia, one of the five permanent members of the security council, and the fountainhead of the Commonwealth and the Anglosphere. Global Britain is rising to take the place of the little province of a single European state he clearly prefers
Rather like the King with no clothes the truth about the EU is clear to any who choose to look. It is a wretched, dysfunctional and protectionist bloc which, if only the citizens of its individual member states were given the chance to vote on leaving, would soon join Communism in the dustbin of failed political experiments. Given their slavish support of the EU I assume that deranged Remainers would, should EU troops land at Dover, be on the clifftops cheering them on.
Kent Messenger - 28th January 2021
Although I do not agree with many of the policies of the current government, particularly the treatment of our fishermen following the agreement with the EU, I believe that many of the attacks concerning the Covid emergency directed against Boris and his ministers are absurd. Judging by many of the comments made one would think that he was sitting in his office rubbing his hands in glee, as he devised new ways to deepen the crisis, rather than doing his best in a terrible situation. The attitude of much of the media is that they should do their best to criticise and condemn, this being particularly true of the BBC. Presenters adopt tones of incredulity when asking questions, sum up the answers given by the interviewees unfairly, and even demand that ministers apologise to those affected by the pandemic, as if they were incompetent, uncaring or both. One wonders what right these arrogant unelected inquisitors think they possess to inflict their personal prejudices on the audience.
It may very well be true that arrangements to meet the situation we now face have been inadequate, but this is hardly the sole fault of a government which has only been in power for a relatively short time, as previous administrations have failed to take such action over decades. Of course, were a government to have announced that it intended to spend billions on PPE, to increase massively the number of intensive care beds, and to build numerous new hospitals, no doubt those now complaining would have decried the expense to prepare for what seemed likely to be a once in a century event.
If we survive this viral plague any future Royal Commission should investigate not merely the immediate causes of the crisis, targeted at those who were unfortunate enough to draw the short straw by being in power when it arrived, but at the failures of the national bureaucracy, in particular that of the NHS, to deal effectively with the tasks arising, the politically motivated teaching unions, who did their best to obstruct the continuation of education, and the disinformation propagated via social media.
It is totally understandable that people who may have lost loved ones seek to find someone to blame, other than the workings of fate, but they should direct their anger at the true guilty party, the Chinese Communist regime, which is using lies to cover up its culpability in failing to warn the world about the danger. Had they done so we might not now be in this dreadful mess.
Kent Messenger - 14th January 2021
Sir Simon Stevens is being disingenuous in his comments on the NHS. I yield to no one in my respect and admiration for the front line workers in the NHS, nor in my gratitude to them. However, as I, and others, including many doctors and nurses, have pointed out, the effectiveness of the NHS has been undermined by asinine changes made in the past few decades.
The ever expanding NHS bureaucracy, with its ridiculous number of so called managers, has absorbed a vast amount of resources which should have been utilised to improve front line services, without in any way helping patients. In this they have been assisted by the non profession of Human Resources, whose malign influence I encountered in my years as chairman of our office union, which converted personnel departments, who existed to assist staff, into an arm of management which rode roughshod over them, at the same time justifying their existence by producing countless absurd policies which actually subverted the efficiency of the organisations involved.
The malignant effect of all this has been thrown into sharp relief by the fact that retired medical professionals have had their applications to help out with vaccinations refused on the bureaucratic grounds that they may not have attended nonsensical courses on diversity, or even fire training. Bureaucrats put their preposterous concerns ahead of effective action.
In addition, in the past, nursing was a vocation, recruiting from a wide spectrum of society, yet now we are told that one must be a graduate to be employed. This is as ridiculous as the need for policeman to have degrees. Fifty years ago a large number of professions were staffed by those who learnt through apprenticeships, and on the job training, yet now those who do not attend university are regarded as unfit for the very same jobs.
When I was last in hospital in 1955 they were run efficiently by the matron and the ward sisters, but now they groan under the weight of useless paper pushers, while willing and capable nurses are lost due to unreasonable demands that they attend university. It is time that the whole NHS was reformed to restore its original ethos.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 8th January 2021
As we wait for the rollout of the vaccines to suppress the viral plague we nevertheless have reason to rejoice that we are finally free of the dead hand of the protectionist, undemocratic and ultimately doomed European Union.
Despite the efforts of the Remainers to reverse the result of the 2016 referendum, and the refusal of so much of the political class over many years to admit the truth about the intentions of the European project, that it is designed create a single European state, run by unelected bureaucrats, the will of the British people, as expressed in the referendum, has finally been honoured.
There have been many heroes of this struggle, initially from those of the Labour party such as Gaitskill, Peter Shore and Tony Benn, and latterly from the right, with senior Conservative figures, like Bill Cash, John Redmond and Iain Duncan Smith, while those who braved undeserved ridicule and hostility to ensure that UKIP provided the means of pressurising the main parties to change their policies have been vindicated. Nevertheless, were it not for the determination, and courage, of Boris Johnson to obey the will of the people, there can be no doubt that we would still be enduring endless political turmoil, as self interested politicians and bureaucrats tried to prevent the break with Brussels.
Future historians will wonder why the sensible words of General de Gaulle were not heeded, and the British establishment caused the sacrifice of so much in order to join an organisation whose philosophy runs contrary to our history and vital interests.
We can at last turn our backs on an out dated and failing project, looking forward to what will amount to a political and economic renaissance, as we regain that belief in ourselves which has been suppressed, but not extinguished, by the years tied to Brussels. As we return to our rightful course of being a truly global country, the aberration of the years involved with the EU will become a distant memory, and we can restore Britain to her rightful place as one of the great nations of the world.
Kent Messenger - 7th January 2021
Although we have not yet been delivered from the nightmare of Covid there is now one overwhelming reason to celebrate, in that, after decades of being gradually drawn into the grip of Brussels, we are once again a free, independent and sovereign country.
Despite the deception practised by so much of the political class over many years, consistently denying the truth about the intentions of the European project, which is seeking to dismantle the nation states of Europe, and create a single European state, the determined common-sense of the British people has won.
There have been many heroes of this struggle, from those such as Gaitskill, Peter Shore and Tony Benn on the left, to Bill Cash, John Redmond and Iain Duncan Smith on the right, while UKIP provided the means of pressurising the main parties to change their policies. Nevertheless, were it not for the determination of Boris Johnson to heed the will of the people, there can be no doubt that we would still be involved in endless arguments, as the Remainers sought to reverse the result of the 2016 referendum.
Future historians will wonder why the sensible words of General de Gaulle were not heeded, and the British establishment caused the sacrifice of so much in order to join an organisation whose philosophy ran contrary to the interests of the British nation. Now at last we can turn back onto our rightful course as a truly global nation, while the aberration of the years involved with Brussels will become a distant memory.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 24th December 2020
Once again Richard Landolt shows that irreconcilable Europhiles have no understanding of the basic democratic objection to the EU. In our parliamentary democracy individuals, and groups, who find themselves at odds with Kafkaesque bureaucracies, can approach their elected representatives to take up their case, the latter being well aware that, if they do not respond adequately, they risk losing their seats at the next election. We have evolved this system of democratic accountability over the centuries, since Simon de Montfort called the first parliaments in the late 13th Century, but it is totally contrary to the arrangement obtaining in Brussels, where appointees are in charge. The idea put forward by Anthony Hoskin that these latter nevertheless represent their own countries ignores the fact that the European elites have more in common with each other than they do with their domestic electorates, and their loyalty lies with the federalist concept of a single European state, run by those such as themselves.
Mr Hoskin also takes issue with my disparaging use of the term 'liberal' yet, together with 'progressive', this word had become debased. My idea of a true liberal, and progressive, would be William Wilberforce, who not only fought the evil of slavery for decades, but championed such organisations as the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The problem is that, while terms such as Fascist and Marxist are clear, the hijacking of the liberal label has allowed those, who are anything but, to pretend that they are on the side of the angels.
In Alice Humpty Dumpty said "When I use a word,"it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less" , and when Alice objects whether you can make words mean so many different things, he replies "The question is,""which is to be master, that's all." In Orwell's masterpiece 1984 O'Brien, the Inner Party's interrogator says "Whatever the Party holds to be the truth, is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party". Clearly Mr Hoskin's feeble defence of the use of such words as 'liberal' shows that he is unaware of their true contemporary meaning.
Finally if Steve Barrass really believes that sovereignty is a very silly idea he would clearly have been happy living in Eastern Europe when it was part of the Soviet Bloc, as Russia, not the individual nations, ruled the people.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 18th December 2020
From his latest tirade directed at myself, Anthony Hoskin makes clear that he is ignorant of the principles of reasoned, logical debate, as he believes, along with the perpetually offended morons of social media, that one should attack the person, not attempt to counter the arguments made. He mistakes style for substance, and attacks the former, largely because he knows that he cannot actually deny the truth of the latter. I make no apology for the use of the descriptions to which he objects, as they are totally accurate, although, as it happens, I have very rarely, if ever, used the term Remoaners to describe Remainers, as I believe the latter term is denunciation enough.
I will only cease to write about the issues involved once, inter alia, the politically correct Thought Police have been silenced, the environmental fanatics prevented from destroying our way of life in the name of an unproven theory, and those who refuse to accept the result of the EU referendum finally abandon their attempts to ignore the will of the people. I like to believe that, had I been writing to newspapers before, and during, the last war, I would have continued to attack the Nazis until the cause was won, however often I was obliged to make the same point.
I apologise for being obliged to reply yet again to Mr Hoskin, but, as that exponent of propaganda, Dr Goebbels stated, if you repeat something often enough, it will be believed, even if it is untrue, and those groups whom Mr Hoskin defends are experts at doing just that.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 11th December 2020
Julian Wilson clearly lacks an understanding of the structure of the European Union, and the fundamental difference between the bureaucrats of Brussels, and those of Westminster.
The European Commission is composed of appointed, not elected, officials, who actually produce the policies which are implemented throughout the Union, that fig-leaf for democracy, the European Parliament, being presented with a choice of swallowing it whole, or rejecting it in its entirety. Therefore, in effect, policy which affects the lives of everyone is created by those who are not democratically accountable.
In the UK the bureaucrats are there to administer the execution of the policies which are generated by our democratically elected representatives, not to devise those policies themselves, and therefore those who make policy are directly accountable to the electorate. If the system used by the EU were to be adopted in the UK it would mean that the committee of permanent secretaries of the major departments would originate policy, MPs doing no more than rubber stamping the results.
If he has read the above I trust that Mr Wilson now comprehends the reason why those of us opposed to EU membership regard the Brussels system as lacking any democratic legitimacy.
As far as his personal attacks on myself are concerned I actually spent over forty years in IT, dealing with matters such as accounts, salaries and asset management, not policy, while my view of Marxism and anarchy is that both are evil systems. Alongside Churchill, one of my personal political heroes is Ernest Bevin who, from his earliest days as leader of the TGWU in the 1920s, opposed communism as an existential threat to the labour movement and democratic politics, while in practice anarchy leads to economic devastation, and the crushing of the weak by the strong.
I would be less worried by the ignorance, and bias, expressed by those such as Mr Wilson if it were not for the fact that they still refuse to accept the result of the 2016 referendum, and have many supporters among the irreconcilable liberal elite.
Kent Messenger - 10th December 2020
While, in a free country, Peter Cook and his friends are entitled to their opinions, they display a breathtaking contempt for that very freedom.
In the first place the supporters of Brexit were animated by a desire to regain control of our own affairs, and not to see our democracy subverted by unelected bureaucrats in Brussels, who are effectively accountable to no one, and whose diktats were imposed upon us without any sort of meaningful input from our elected representatives in Westminster. The European Parliament is merely a talking shop, and a fig-leaf created to cover the essentially dictatorial nature of the EU.
Secondly the 2016 referendum was the largest single democratic vote in our history, but Mr Brook is arrogant enough to discount the result, declaring that it can be stopped or suspended. By what right does he believe that his personal opinion should be given more weight than the more than seventeen million people who voted to leave the EU?
Finally his comment that "Nobody voted for the toxic combination of Corona crisis plus Brexit disaster, which equals a 'Britastrophe'", is absurd on many levels. The coronavirus was not even a cloud on the horizon when the vote took place, while Brexit is not a disaster, but is the salvation of this country, allowing us to turn back to the path we should never have left of being a sovereign, independent and democratic nation, not a province of a European single state. The vote was not about economics, but about who governs Britain.
One wonders whether Remainers will ever accept the will of the electorate, or if we must wait until the inevitable collapse of the EU to be free of their constant harping.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 4th December 2020
I am sure that the Courier will be inundated with letters about our area being put in tier 3, so I will confine myself to stating that, despite the fact that the government is in a very difficult position, the individuals responsible for placing West Kent in the same tier as East Kent are totally incompetent. Our local MPs are doing their best to reverse this decision, but I doubt that they will succeed.
However we must not allow the coronavirus emergency to provide a cover, under which small, but vociferous groups, are seeking to undermine our society. Firstly we must cease to indulge the ridiculous, but fashionable, agendas of the Green lobby, which are largely supported by uninformed youngsters, and middle class eco warriors, not ordinary people.
The farce of cycle lanes appearing and disappearing within days in Tonbridge, and other Kent towns, is now to be eclipsed by the proposal to phase out petrol and diesel cars by 2030, while by the impossible target of removing all gas fired boilers from homes in a similar time span has also been set. When one considers the fact that these changes will be completely irrelevant in a world where China has more coal fired power being developed than the entire coal capacity of the US, these idiotic proposals show how necessary it is for us to cease listening to silly little Scandinavian girls, and to put the interests of ordinary people before the obsessions of the environmental fanatics.
One a separate issue the Thought Police of the liberal elite is now attempting to remove memorials to British heroes such as Churchill and Nelson, and world icons like Gandhi, based on specious, and absurd claims about their views and actions. Perhaps the most egregious example of this lunacy was the British Library choosing to include the poet Ted Hughes' name in a list of those associated with slavery, because of an ancestor, who was born in 1592. and whose family was, the library said, "deeply involved" with the London Virginia Company. The Library has apologised, but this illustrates that the lunatics are now in charge of the asylum, and it is time that the whole strata of obsessive imbeciles currently in charge of such organisations, including the National Trust, and the BBC, were replaced with those who retain a grip on sanity.
Kent Messenger - 3rd December 2020
Assuming that there is not a last minute betrayal in the EU negotiations we can look to a better future free of interference by Brussels. However, now that it is clear that the current health emergency is to be followed by many years of economic problems, reducing the standard of living for very many people for a considerable length of time, we must cease to indulge the ridiculous, but fashionable, agendas of the Green lobby, which are largely supported by uninformed youngsters, and middle class eco warriors, not genuine workers.
In Tonbridge, and other Kent towns, we have witnessed the debacle of cycle lanes appearing and disappearing within days, but this farce is now to be eclipsed by the proposal to phase out petrol and diesel cars by 2030. Quite apart from the fact that we have neither the infrastructure, nor the necessary electric supply to replace them, the cost of these cars will only ensure that car ownership is once again restricted to the rich, which will please those of the metropolitan elite who dislike the freedom to drive currently enjoyed by those the former regard as proles.
The methods of producing electric cars, and in particular batteries, ensures that the effect on emissions will anyway be very small, and in a world where China has more coal fired power being developed than the entire coal capacity of the USA, will be completely irrelevant. Anyway what is not generally appreciated is that the current increases we have seen in emissions have proved beneficial by increasing crop yields.
That this proposal is accompanied by the impossible target of removing all gas fired boilers from homes in a similar time span only illustrates how necessary it is for us to cease listening to silly little Scandinavian girls, and to put the interests of ordinary people before the obsessions of the environmental fanatics.
Finally, although many will not of heard of him, those who supported Leave in the referendum may be sorry to learn that one of the heroes of the anti EU movement over decades, Lord Stoddart of Swindon, has just died at the age of 94. He fought the good fight in the Lords for many years, and it is a pity that he did not live long enough to see the final victory. As much as anyone we owe him our liberation from the EU.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 27th November 2020
Once again Steve Barrass makes clear that he does not understand the nature, or the intentions of the European Union. His praise for the Single Market ignores the fact that to be a member of same would be to return us to the situation where our affairs would be once again under the control of the bureaucrats of Brussels, thus negating the whole point of Brexit. I do not know how often I must repeat this, but the vote for Brexit was not primarily about economics, but about our democracy, and the latter must not be undermined by any deal the UK were to reach with the EU.
What we seek is an agreement similar to that between the EU and Canada, or the EU and Australia, where the economic aspects admit of absolutely no interference by Brussels in the internal affair of the other party. Indeed this was originally proposed by the EU, but withdrawn when it became clear that the UK would accept such an arrangement, but not if it included betraying our fishermen, or allowing the European Court of Justice to determine our economic policies. The EU has never wavered from its aim of creating a single European state, and we must ensure that we are not drawn back into that project by stealth.
It is anyway questionable whether being members of the Single Market was in fact so beneficial to the UK, as the costs of EU membership, and the restrictions placed on our economy by Brussels, probably outweighed any possible advantages, quite apart from the detrimental effects on our right to determine our own future as an independent, sovereign nation.
Kent Messenger - 26th November 2020
David Fillingham seems to prefer conspiracy theories over democracy. He berates the government front bench for following what he describes as the Brexit line, but it must have escaped his attention that the greatest democratic decision ever taken in the UK was to leave the EU, so to implement same is to do no more than to respect the wishes of the majority of the electorate, in particular those of working class voters. Again, in 2016 Donald Trump won the presidential election, while his party also held both the Senate and the Congress, thus giving him a clear mandate, and his so called disruptive policies included no extension of foreign wars, and helping to reconcile a number of Arab states to an understanding with Israel.
Mr Putin may be authoritarian but he is no Hitler, or Stalin, seeking hegemony for his nation in Europe, or the world, as, being a realist, he is well aware that such games are not worth the candle, as they always cost far more, and end more disastrously, than intended. Those who claim that the British and American people voted the way they did is because of Russian interference are themselves guilty of overweening arrogance, imagining that the fact that the majority do not agree with them must be for some other reason than that they might be wrong, as clearly otherwise they would not have defied their supposed betters in the Left liberal elite.
The true betrayal of democracy would be for any backtracking on Brexit, or for the Conservative party establishment to persuade Boris to retreat into their comfort zone of satisfying shire voters, rather than fulfilling promises made to the voters of the 'Red Wall'. Unfortunately the moves towards appeasing the eco warriors of the Green movement may foreshadow just such a foolish change, which will eventually undermine support for their own party among those not obsessed with climate change theories.
Kent Messenger - 19th November 2020
Judging by Lloyd Allen's comments he does not understand the very great difference between democratic socialism and Marxism. Labour's greatest leader was Clement Attlee, whose post war administration created the NHS, implemented the 1944 Education Act, and nationalised much of British industry, including the mines and the railways. His Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin, left school as 15, founded the TGWU, and was described by Churchill as 'by far the most distinguished man that the Labour Party have thrown up in my time'. Both men were determined anti Marxists and, among other policies, worked together on the decision to produce a British atomic bomb, despite intense opposition from pro-Soviet elements of the Labour Party, as the former recognized Stalin for what he was.
I remember how the Labour party rightly maintained a list of those organisations which sought, in accordance with Marxist doctrine, to infiltrate and subvert the former, something such people had sought to do for decades. The Marxists, with their arrogant claim to be 'the vanguard of the proletariat', share with the modern Liberal left, who despise the views of the ordinary people, a belief in their own intellectual superiority, and natural right to rule. Attlee himself said 'ignore the intellectuals, they are always wrong', a judgement which has stood the test of time.
As far as Mr Allen's contention that I direct minimal anger at those on the right is concerned he could not be further from the truth, as I have only loathing for those who deny the Holocaust, profess anti Semitism, or assess the worth of a person by their race. As one who did not even know what alt-right means I can only say, having searched for the term on the web, to associate any democrat such as myself with their views is reprehensible.
Times of Tonbridge - 18th November 2020
I recommend that those such as Martin Dawes, who criticise our electoral system, watch the three series of the Danish political drama 'Borgen'. This is well written, with an excellent cast, sympathetic characters, and with compelling storylines, but for those with an interest in politics, it explodes the myth that proportional representation somehow achieves a fairer result.
Once the elections are over the plethora of small parties indulge in horse trading, in order to arrive at a majority government, seeking policy compromises, and political appointments, thus undermining the very platforms upon which they stood.
The result is that, for example, one might vote for a Centre Left party, only to see it support right wing policies, so that its elected representatives might enjoy some of the fruits of power.
There is no perfect system, but 'first past the post' usually results in a stronger government, while it should be recognised that the main parties of right and left do generally represent a coalition of ideas, within a philosophical framework clearly understood by electorates.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 13th November 2020
In his response to my comments on religion S Rotberg fails to comprehend the point I made about, in the absence of a God, morality being no more than a matter of opinion, as if it is not absolute, derived from religion, then it is dependent on relativism. Therefore whether an action is right or wrong depends on the moral norms of the society in which it is practiced, and the same action may be morally right in one society but be morally wrong in another.
I am sure that this correspondent shares with me a belief that to kill the innocent is wrong, to be cruel is wrong, or to lie, cheat or steal is wrong. However these beliefs do not, as he thinks, arise spontaneously among humans, but are, in our case, absorbed from living in a society based upon the Judaeo-Christian values which hold that they are absolutes, not just convenient ideas.
The Romans who cheered the slaughter of prisoners and animals in the Coliseum, and delighted to see gladiators kill each other, would not even understand why we think these things are wrong. Nor indeed, in living memory, would the Germans who operated death camps to kill Jews and others, or Imperial Japan, which massacred millions of Chinese as they sort to extend their conquests. It is a chilling thought that, had we lost the war, Nazi indoctrination might, within several generations, have destroyed our own morality, as new generations would have been taught that might was right, that only Aryans deserved to live, and that belief in Christianity was a heresy against the doctrine of the superiority of the master race.
It is all very well of Mr Rotberg to extol the virtues of leading a peaceful and fulfilling life, but, even in the unlikely absence of war, oppression and cruelty, many enduring miseries of body and mind would have no hope for the future if this material world is all there is to existence.
Kent Messenger - 12th November 2020
Your correspondents who are so certain in their belief that anthropological global warming is a reality, proved by scientists, should look at what the consensus of the scientific community was only a few decades, when the warnings were all of rapid cooling, and a new ice age.
I could give numerous examples, but two illustrate the point. In 1971 the journal Science published a paper by two eminent scientists which said "An increase by only a factor of four in global aerosol background concentration may be sufficient to reduce the surface temperature by as much as 3.5 degrees Kelvin, sufficient to trigger an ice age". In 1973 the Science Digest carried the following warning "At this point the world's climatologists are agreed on only two things. That we do not have tens of thousands of years to prepare for the next ice age, and that how carefully we monitor our atmospheric pollution will have direct bearing on the arrival and nature of this weather crisis. The sooner Man confronts these facts, the safer he'll be".
There are fashions in scientific opinion, and these are exacerbated by the desire to obtain research grants, not to rock the boat, and to enjoy fifteen minutes of fame. The one thing which is undeniable about our climate is that we live in an interglacial, which could end at any moment. The very different advice we now receive from scientists concerning the best way to fight Covid should be a warning to the fact that 'following the science' is not as straightforward as it seems.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 6th November 2020
I write this before election day in America, but I fear that Steve Barrass will get his wish, and Donald Trump will have lost. Although Mr Trump is too bombastic in style for British observers, and very intolerant of those who oppose him, one should look at his achievements, and also those whose lives he seeks to improve. Contrary to the propaganda emanating from the media here Mr Trump has succeeded in numerous areas, and kept the promises he made in 2016. Unlike many of his predecessors he has done his best to avoid military adventures, while using the considerable influence of the US to broker peace between Israel and several Arab nations. For this he receives little credit among the liberal elites, in contrast to the ridiculous awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Barak Obama when he had hardly had time to get his feet under the desk. The latter was a good, and well meaning man, but his greatest achievement was to show that it was rightly possible for a person of any race to be President, as he made no significant changes to foreign policy, his greatest expertise being rhetorical, not practical.
In addition, thanks to President Trump's policies, even in the face of this vile virus, the American economy is weathering the global pandemic better than any other major Western country, including those of Europe, experiencing the least severe economic contraction of any major Western economy in the first half of 2020, with the Euro Area economy's contraction being 1.5 times as severe as the contraction of the US economy. Since April, America has gained over 11.4 million jobs, recovering more than half of those lost because of lockdowns. Retail sales are already above pre-pandemic levels, many construction and manufacturing jobs have returned, business activity is at a 20-month high, and new jobless claims fell to their lowest level this week since the beginning of the pandemic.
What many people in Britain may not realise is that the Democratic party is dominated by the liberal insiders of the Washington Beltway, whose hold the same opinions as our homegrown inhabitants of the Westminster bubble. Just like Boris, Donald Trump is attempting to better the lives of the blue collar workers, ignoring the special pleading of the already privileged middle classes.
As far as we in the UK are concerned we will come to regret Mr Trump's departure, as he is a good friend, and one who supports our efforts to regain our freedom from the domination of Brussels, unlike Joe Biden, who foolishly believes that the Germans would be a better ally for the US
Kent Messenger - 5th November 2020
I was amazed to read L Belsom's defence of Marxism, not least because he described it as a 17th century ideology, when Karl Marx was not born until 1818.
Whatever its original principles it must be judged on its practical effects on the world, and there it is guilty of causing probably more deaths than any other doctrine which has afflicted mankind. Even Marx himself ended his life stating that he was not a Marxist, and Lenin admitted that the Russian revolution, arising as it did from a fundamentally peasant economy, was in direct conflict with the so called Marxist principles which stated that a society must go through an industrialised, capitalist phase, before a Communist state can arise.
Both Lenin and Trotsky were open about the need for the application of extreme measures to establish a Marxist Russia, and this was of course brought to perfection by Stalin, who is estimated to have caused the deaths of about 20 million Russians, who died in labor camps, forced collectivisation, famine and executions.
All these supposed idealistic creeds, whether it be Marxism, religious fundamentalism, or modern protest groups such as environmental extremists, react the same way when they discover that their basic principles do not fit the real world. Instead of questioning, and changing, their beliefs they try to twist reality to fit their distorted views, resulting in misery for vast numbers of people. Marxism has proved itself to be evil, and should be resisted wherever it is encountered.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 30th October 2020
Paul Rowlandson is either extremely naive, or has been living in a cave for the past five years. He talks of the period since the EU referendum as if supporters of Brexit have been able to follow through with major changes in the spirit of going forward together. In reality the Remainers refused to accept a democratic decision, and until the election of December 2019, proceeded to use their strength in Parliament to frustrate an effective withdrawal from the EU, opposing any policies which might achieve same. When Boris finally obtained a majority the whole process was then thrown into disarray by the advent of the coronavirus, without which we would now be standing on the brink of complete success. Nevertheless, if Boris remains resolute, then we should make the final break with Brussels by next year.
As far as the comments by Richard Landolt are concerned he clearly does not understand what I mean by the liberal elite, as it is not the background, or the interests, of individuals which is involved, but the philosophy and political views which they espouse. Unfortunately, rather like pornography, the qualifications for membership of this elite by so called liberals and progressives is often difficult to define, but their effects can be easily recognized. They will, inter alia, always favour the interests of foreign nations over our own, refuse to accept that crime is deterred by firm penal policies, preferring to advocate weak responses which never work, ignore the rights of unborn children, and approach matters such as defence against aggressors with an appeasers' mindset. Far from being unfit to be PM Boris is the best we have had for many years, and only the unprecedented crisis caused by the virus, which would have challenged even Winston, have prevented him from achieving what I am sure he can, and hopefully will.
Kent Messenger - 29th October 2020
S Kitchener's attack on me as a right wing capitalist says more about his politics than it reflects reality, as I have been a trade union member for over fifty years, and a supporter of the real Labour party represented by Attlee, Gaitskill and Bevin, although not in its modern pseudo liberal incarnation. If, as I suspect, he considers support for Brexit to be a mark of a right winger, he should be aware that most true socialists consider the EU to be a capitalist club, and, for many years, I sat on anti EU committees alongside Labour figures such as Peter Shore, while acting as a steward for Tony Benn's meetings, where he outrightly condemned the EU as an anti democratic organisation. In addition my belief that penal policy is too soft is not a result of some inner Judge Jeffreys, but because I am aware that it is the working class who suffer most from crime, while my opposition to illegal immigration is based on the fact that it is the jobs, and life prospects, of ordinary working people living in places such as my wife's hometown of Middlesbrough, that are adversely affected, not those of comfortable middle class liberals in the South East.
He accuses me of a lack of research but I stand on the facts of the experience of having lived in the UK for over seventy years, a grammar school education, qualifications in History and Economics, and active involvement with political issues for decades. I am not, as he asserts, bitter, but, I do feel, as a practising Christian, what the bible describes as righteous anger, when confronted with the arrogant complacency of the selfish so called liberal elite.
I can assure Mr Kitchener that I am quite happy with my volunteer efforts at my Church, and that he should consider the beam in his own eye of wishing to suppress the views of those with whom he disagrees, rather than seek to play the man rather than the ball when discussing matters of great moment. If he was a pupil of mine I would tell him to try ascertaining the facts before uncritically accepting the fashionable opinions promulgated by those who have had things their own way for too long, and who now fear that the result of the 2016 referendum may prove a watershed, which will see the true interests of the people put before those of the chattering classes.
BBC History Magazine - 1st November 2020
Given the true horrors of nuclear weapons no Civil Defence measures taken could ever have been more than token gestures, and indeed one would question whether living in the desolate wasteland that would have been left would have been worthwhile.
However it is obvious that the only way of surviving such a war was to ensure that it never happened, and here the Western powers did follow a strategy that was successful. Despite immense public pressure from those who would have appeased the Communist bloc by laying down our own nuclear weapons the policy of deterrent did prevent the ultimate holocaust.
It was not 'Protect and Survive', or 'Duck and Cover' but instead 'Mutually Assured Destruction' which actually kept the population from suffering the effects of a global war.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 16th October 2020
My parents, who during the Second World War, endured the Blitz while working in the Woolwich Arsenal, and saw their house destroyed by an oil bomb in 1940, would have been furious had they known that we are now being threatened by the German President of the European Commission, because we dare to put our survival as an independent nation above the narrow views of lawyers. The snide comment by Tim Wilson about Novichok is the sort of distortion we expect from Remain supporters, while his statements concerning Ireland totally ignore the fact that the EU could not care less about the Irish, but have merely tried to use the issue to keep control of Britain by the back door. That the European Court of Justice should claim the power to rule on anything connected with the UK is a joke, given that the principle upon which it operates is that the primacy of European Union law is an EU law principle that, when there is conflict between European law and the law of its member states, European law prevails, and the norms of national law are set aside, thus proving that it is nothing more than the subservient creature of the unelected rulers of the EU.
Steve Barrass continues his nonsense, as the offering made by Labour at the last election was Jeremy Corbyn, not Keir Starmer, and the latter's record clearly shows that, as Prime Minister, he would rush to take the knee to the EU, completely ignoring the democratic decision taken by the British people. We are now at the critical point in the EU negotiations and, whatever problems Boris has encountered over Covid, which would have tried any leader to the extreme, he will not be forgiven if he backs down by betraying the fishermen, or by allowing he ECJ any say in our affairs.
On a separate issue, it is regrettable that Prince Harry, once admired by most of us, has decided to issue a statement that the world is created by white people for white people. This may have been true for him, brought up in a palace, but he clearly has no sympathy for what the white working class in this country have endured over the centuries, when the Industrial Revolution was built upon their misery. Nor does he realise that the group most treated with contempt by the London elite are the white working class boys neglected by the educational system. Of course ethnic minorities also have very real grievances, but to demonise the majority of the population because of their colour is a disgrace, and the Queen must be very upset to see what Harry has done. He seems determined to follow the Duke of Windsor in sniping at his country from abroad.
Kent Messenger - 15th October 2020
Victoria Nicholls, in common with other environmentalists, chooses to call me a 'denier', in the hope that subconsciously I will be linked with those fascists who deny the Holocaust, which I actually regard as an historical reality, and the greatest crime in human history. This propaganda technique of guilt by association is one learnt from Dr Goebbels, as is the proposition that if you repeat a lie often enough, people will come to believe it, something the Greens do consistently.
I do not for one moment deny that the Earth's climate changes, as is inevitable on a dynamic world which has a life span of billions of years, and only dead bodies such as the Moon experience no variation in climate. However what I do question is whether the current changes are anthropological in origin, and, if not, why we should rush to undermine our civilisation by making precipitate changes, rather than allowing technology, or indeed natural processes, to meet the challenges in due time.
I recommend that Ms Nicholls read 'Climate Change: The Facts 2020', which lays out the reasons why we should reject the alarmism of the Green fanatics. Rather than listen to silly little schoolgirls she might read what Richard Lindzen, erstwhile Professor of Meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has to say in this book. He does not deny the potential for greenhouse gases, especially water vapour and CO2, to warm the Earth, but explains that because of the complexity of the physical processes at work, in particular, and the role clouds play in facilitating negative feedbacks, the Earth is unlikely to overheat. Professor Lindzen is known for his work in the dynamics of the middle atmosphere, atmospheric tides, and ozone photochemistry, unlike the vociferous former chairman of the climate alarmists at the IPCC, Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, whose degree in railway engineering, not climate, was obtained from the Indian Railways Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering.
As far as Extinction Rebellion is concerned these people are quite happy to block traffic, or limit free speech by attacking the distribution of newspapers, but why do they not demonstrate outside the Chinese embassy, or even better in Beijing, as it has recently been revealed that China is building a new coal plant every two weeks, and adding more gigawatts of coal power each year than the rest of the world combined. Obviously the reason is that the motivating force of XR is anti capitalist, and they do not intend to attack their fellow Marxists.
Kent Messenger - 8th October 2020
Bill Martin is correct that the local output of the BBC is vital, and should be supported, as indeed is the work of the World Service. However, in his desire to make a party political point Mr Martin accuses Conservative governments of underfunding the BBC, something which ignores the fact that the organisation has had access to vast sums from the licence fee, imposed on all.
The problem with the BBC is that it has been dominated for far too long by those unworthy of what they had inherited. I remember in the post war years, when the BBC still lived in the afterglow of its moment of glory, the time it truly spoke for England in our darkest hour, that the vast majority of the nation regarded it in the same light as the Crown, or the Church, it being the epitome of decency, service and patriotism. Woefully in these latter years it has been subverted by the bien pensants of the liberal left, so it now represents only the beliefs of the metropolitan elite, while its decisions to chase ratings, which, in view of the guaranteed income from the licence fee, it does not need, to pander to youth, who have other interests, and its payment to so called talent of obscenely large salaries have all undermined its place in the nation's heart.
There is now a glimmer of hope for with Tim Davie as director, and the possibility of Charles Moore as Chairman, it may be that the BBC can yet be restored to the organisation Lord Reith intended it to be. However it is certainly in the last chance saloon, and may have already have damaged its reputation beyond repair.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 2nd October 2020
It is only to be expected that those holding political views such as Karen Kilby are psychologically incapable of even reading the arguments put forward by opponents, as she, and those of a similar disposition, have suffered a trauma from which many may never recover. After decades of believing that the consensus policies of the political establishment were supported by the British people the result of the EU referendum showed that they were very much mistaken. The bien pensants who have so dominated social developments over the past few decades are still reeling, and clearly in denial. I must also point out to Ms Kilby that Don Quixote tilted at windmills, imagining them to be giants, whereas my targets such as the EU are very real, and threatening.
As far as the praise heaped by Steve Barrass onto the BBC is concerned he might like to reflect that the new director general Tim Davie has stated that journalists who cannot leave their politics at the door are no longer welcome, while he is also planning to tackle Left-wing bias in BBC comedy shows as part of his reform plans. These statements from the horse's mouth make it obvious that the balance admired by Mr Barrass is merely a figment of the latter's imagination.
That the liberal elite are far from giving up has been illustrated only this week by their determination to falsify history, as the administrators of the National Trust choose to categorise Churchill's home Chartwell as one tainted by colonialism, or even more ridiculously, imply an association with slavery. This slur on the greatest ever Briton clearly shows how the National Trust has completely lost its way, falling under the sway of left liberals activists. I trust that all patriots, and particularly those who are members of the National Trust, will protest, and if necessary have no more to do with the latter.
Churchill was central to the cause of defeating the worse racist regime to have ever existed, and had it not been for his inspiring leadership, and refusal to submit, it is very likely that the Eurasian land mass, and perhaps the whole world, would have fallen under the control of the European fascists, and the Japanese militarists, the consequences for those who were considered by these fanatics to be inferior peoples being catastrophic.
The chattering classes of the Western world, particularly the UK and the USA, have finally gone completely insane, aggressively promoting a view of the world which bears no resemblance to reality, but generates hatreds and confrontations where previously people were moving closer to tolerance, and a united community, than had hitherto been the case. I hope that the 2016 referendum proves to be a watershed, turning the tide on these arrogant and ignorant blockheads who have done us so much damage over the years.
Kent Messenger - 1st October 2020
If the history books of the future are objective and truthful they will surely record that 2020 was not merely the year of a global pandemic, but also that time when the chattering classes of the Western world, particularly the UK and the USA, went insane. The bien pensants who have so dominated social developments over the past few decades aggressively promoted a view of the world which bore no resemblance to reality, but generated hatreds and confrontations where previously people were moving closer to tolerance and a united community than had hitherto been the case.
One egregious example is the determination to falsify history illustrated by the administrators of the National Trust categorising Churchill's home Chartwell as one tainted by colonialism, or even more ridiculously, implying an association with slavery. Had it not been for Churchill's inspiring leadership, and refusal to submit, it is very likely that the Eurasian land mass, and perhaps the whole world, would have fallen under the control of the European fascists, and the Japanese militarists, the consequences for those who were considered by these fanatics to be inferior peoples being catastrophic. The Nazis regarded the British as fellow Aryans, and had we been prepared to sacrifice every moral standard which characterised our nation, we might have divided the world between us. Indeed there were those among the British ruling class who would have been willing to come to an accommodation with Hitler, so that Great Britain and her empire would have been left untouched.
That we did not go down this path was due in no small measure to Winston Churchill, yet now we see this rewriting of history attempting to besmirch the memory of one voted to be the greatest Briton ever, clearly showing how the National Trust has completely lost its way, falling under the sway of left liberals activists. I trust that all patriots, and particularly those who are members of the National Trust, will protest, and if necessary have no more to do with the latter.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 25th September 2020
Unsurprisingly Remainers such as Steve Barrass are attacking the government's intention to, if necessary, modify the Withdrawal Agreement, in order to prevent the EU using it to render Brexit ineffective.
These apologists for Brussels are having a fit of the vapours at the thought that the UK might breach international law, while ignoring the fact that all nations do exactly the same when their vital interests are at stake. We are hearing a great deal from the Labour party, and from those such as Joe Biden, and Nancy Pelosi, about how dreadful it would be for Britain to take such a step, but we should remember that the invasion of Iraq was not sanctioned by the UN, and was therefore a breach of international law.
As far as the EU is concerned its political court, the European Court of Justice, has ruled that the EU has no obligation to follow WTO law (i.e. international law), including, inter alia, such issues as GMO crops and Airbus subsidies, and also stated that the EU should disregard the UN charter, the highest text of international law, if it is at odds with the EU's internal constitutional order. We should be in no doubt that Michel Barnier and his masters are very well aware that they will be able to use certain ambiguous clauses within the Withdrawal Agreement to continue the control by the ECJ of the UK, thereby negating the whole point of Brexit. The Good Friday accord is also an international treaty, so, by their own logic, the EU cannot use the Withdrawal Agreement to override it, and the UK Internal Market Bill is a safeguard to ensure that a new constitutional regime cannot be imposed on the Unionists without consent.
All these legal quibbles remind one of Sir Kingsley Wood, the Secretary of State for Air, who, at the beginning of the Second World War said that he could not authorise the bombing of the Ruhr, as it was private property. When the survival of a nation is concerned it must take the highest priority.
Mr Barrass praises the one nation wing of the Conservative party, but in reality these people are in fact no nation Tories, as they have always been wedded to the European project which would reduce the UK to being no more than a province in a single European state. Our freedom, democracy and independence are at stake, which are of much greater importance than disputes between lawyers. As that great Labour figure, and patriot, Peter Shore, said "to surrender such assets for an uncertain place inside the emerging European state would be an act not far short of madness and betrayal".
Kent Messenger - 24th September 2020
M Eccleston and P Stevens clearly have little knowledge of past events, and none at all of the EU's true motives in attempting to weaponise the Withdrawal Agreement.
In recent years the EU has systematically refused to comply with WTO rulings on GMO crops, hormone beef, and Airbus subsidies, while the European Court of Justice ruled that the EU had no obligation to follow WTO law (i.e international law) if it narrows the European Commission's scope for manoeuvre, repudiating the doctrines of legal supremacy and direct effect it now seeks to assert in the Withdrawal Agreement. The ECJ also ruled that the EU should disregard the UN charter, the highest text of international law, if it is at odds with the EU's internal constitutional order. The Good Friday accord is also an international treaty, so the Withdrawal Agreement cannot override it, and the UK Internal Market Bill is a safeguard to ensure that a new constitutional regime cannot be imposed on the Unionists without consent.
The unelected rulers of the EU are very well aware that they will be able to use certain ambiguous clauses within the Withdrawal Agreement to continue the control by the ECJ of the UK, thereby negating the whole point of Brexit, and this of course is why the Remainers in this country are so keen that Boris should fail to amend it. The hypocrites of the Labour party, and Joe Biden and his Democrats, ought to remember that the invasion of Iraq was not sanctioned by the UN, and was therefore a breach of international law. The reality is that lawyer's quibbles must not take precedence over the future of a sovereign nation. All this is reminiscent of Sir Kingsley Wood who, at the beginning of the Second World War said that he could not authorise the bombing of the Ruhr, as it was private property.
Our freedom, democracy and independence are at stake, which are of much greater importance than disputes between lawyers. As that great Labour figure, and patriot, Peter Shore, said "to surrender such assets for an uncertain place inside the emerging European state would be an act not far short of madness and betrayal".
Times of Tonbridge - 23rd September 2020
The changes being made to the roads in Tonbridge are a disgrace, made doubly so by the fact that the KCC, and indeed the government, is controlled by Conservatives, not Greens. While fit thirty year olds may be quite happy riding bicycles everywhere there are millions of people who, through disability, ill health or just plain old age cannot do so, and rely upon being able to use cars or public transport to get around. The idea that, in order for those who are able to take more exercise should do so is a good one, but it does not require creating havoc on the roads, merely an encouragement to walk, run or visit the gym.
Those who imagine that they are virtuous because they support parties in thrall to the Green agenda should realise that there is a price to pay if they choose to believe that adherence to the unproven theory of anthropological global warming should take precedence over all other considerations. The environmentalists will never be satisfied until humanity is back in the caves, rubbing sticks together for warmth, although of course using wood is also a cardinal sin in their eyes. They refuse to recognize that industry is already making massive changes in order to allow technological changes to meet most of their demands regarding emissions etc., as to do so would render their campaigns redundant.
It is ridiculous that county councils have responsibility for the roads within boroughs when it is the local council that knows the area, and is more directly accountable to the electorate than such remote bodies. It is time that these responsibilities were devolved to local elected representatives, while the policy of permitting a minority of green activists to dominate the political agenda should be reversed.
Kent Messenger - 17th September 2020
The attempts by the zealots of Extinction Rebellion to undermine free speech reveal the true nature of this organisation, as it wishes that no opinion other than theirs should be permitted. Although they have many sincere supporters I am afraid that these latter are merely a modern version of Lenin's useful idiots, giving credence to an apparently worthy cause which is actually pursuing a very sinister agenda.
The anarchists, nihilists and extreme socialists who are the driving force behind Extinction Rebellion are following the usual Marxist programme of attempting to disrupt democratic societies, to create disorder, and to use the subsequent chaos to allow them to step in, although they never seem to learn that the usual result is to promote equally undemocratic opponents to take power.
It is ironic that even the substance of the argument they claim to be making is deeply flawed as, contrary to their assertions, the theory of global warming is not one which is universally accepted by scientists, and one which ignores the reality of the very complex, and dynamic, universe in which we live. The eccentricities of the Earth's orbit and axial tilt lead to significant changes in the amount of energy reaching us from the Sun, while the the latter is still adjusting to the effects of having emerged from a large galactic dust cloud only about 10,000 years ago. The solar system is not an unchanging, necessarily stable entity, gravitational effects from the other planets all affecting each other, while even the galaxy as a whole is a violent place, full of radiation, and immense clouds of dust.
There is absolutely no reason why we should not seek to reduce, and eventually eliminate, our dependence on fossil fuels, not least because they are finite, but we do not need, as the extreme environmentalists advocate, to throw out the baby with the bath water. A reasonable approach, which is already taking place as industry turns to more sustainable source of power, can achieve what is demanded without destroying the technological basis of our civilisation. Those who rant and rave, and claim to be idealists should remember that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Times of Tonbridge - 16th September 2020
Dr Alan Bullion extolls the virtues of the new Lib Dem leader, and indeed he seems to be personally admirable. However Dr Bullion then unfairly attacks the Prime Minister, as if Boris was not doing his utmost to deal with a crisis unprecedented in over a century, while, as usual including a sour comment about Brexit.
The Liberal party became an irrelevance after Lloyd George's departure in 1922, its only platform now being a love of rule from Brussels, combined with the fact of not being one of the other main parties. It is beholden to fashionable socially liberal policies, being weak on, inter alia, penal policy, immigration and defence of the family, and only represents the middle class Guardian readers who have been allowed to dominate the country for far too long.
The Lib Dems still seek to reverse the democratic decision taken in June 2016, but we have absolutely no need to come to an agreement with the EU on trade, as using WTO terms is perfectly acceptable. The US and China use such terms, as does the US and the UK, and indeed as do most nations around the planet. Neither must we allow lawyers' quibbles to deter us from doing what is in the interests of our own country. When necessary many other nations have revoked international agreements, where such have been detrimental to the nation involved.
Kent Messenger - 10th September 2020
While Ray Duff is correct that those holding a majority in Parliament in the recent years have been largely from the Conservative party the fact is that these have been conservative in name only. Since Macmillan first tried to embroil this country in the European project the Tory party has been dominated by those who sought to tie us to Brussels, even Margaret Thatcher, having supported staying in the EEC in the 1975 referendum, and signing the Single European Act, only experiencing a road to Damascus far too late. In addition, while pursuing economic, and frequently class based policies, the Conservatives have been as beholden to socially liberal policies as their opponents, being weak on, inter alia, penal policy, immigration and defence of the family.
The Liberal party became an irrelevance after Lloyd George's departure in 1922, its only platform now being a love of rule from Brussels, combined with the fact of not being one of the other main parties. As far as Labour in concerned one of my political heroes Ernest Bevin would have rejected with contempt the attitudes now dominant in that party, he being a firm supporter of the working class, not middle class Guardian readers, and a true patriot.
The problem now is that, as the communist Rudi Dutschke advocated in the 1960s, the far left, unable to win democratic elections, has followed a policy of undertaking a long march through the institutions, undermining parts of the media, particularly the BBC, the education system, and even the Church, so that siren voices are raised against all attempts to rein in their fundamentally subversive policies. The results are now clear, with many afraid to oppose the irrational ideas being promoted, and free speech being undermined, the ignorant bullies of social media being in the forefront of such undemocratic forces.
As far as his comments about anthropological climate change are concerned, I would require considerably more space to enumerate the reasons that this is not a settled issue, but suffice it to say for now that many eminent scientists do not agree with the vociferous advocates of the apparent current consensus on the theory.
The Sun - 8th September 2020
How much longer must we tolerate the activities of the collection of anarchists, nihilists and fascists who constitute Extinction Rebellion. These people are actively seeking to suppress free speech by preventing the printing of newspapers which do not wholly subscribe to the unproven theory concerning anthropological climate change. It is time the authorities cracked down hard on this undemocratic organisation.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 4th September 2020
The ancient Greek tragedian Sophocles wrote in his play Antigone that "evil sometimes seems good to a man whose mind a god leads to destruction". We know the version of this better in a proverb often quoted, but wrongly attributed to Euripides, that "those whom the Gods wish to destroy they first make mad".
I feel that the description by Sophocles perfectly sums up the reality of the politically correct activists who are riding high at the moment, both here, and in the USA. If one ignores the sinister figures of the hard left, who seek to use these causes to advance their agenda, it is obvious that the vociferous minority who are seeking to corrupt our language, and criminalise those who refuse to bend the knee, literally in some cases, are driven by a conviction of their own moral superiority, yet what they are doing is the opposite of moral. Campaigns about, inter alia, the destruction of cultural artefacts such as statues, gender identification, the undermining of free speech in universities, limitations applied to language, and arrogant certainty over anthropological climate change, all demonise anyone who dares to question the underlying premises. Even singing Rule Britannia would be banned by these lunatics.
They are a self selecting group of bien pensants, who do not require courage, intelligence or strength to belong, but are merely prepared to declare themselves supportive of every last one of the lunatic ideas they promulgate, and are great ones for demanding rights, but are not keen on responsibility, because this conflicts with their right to be unaccountable, as they might be required to justify their views intellectually, rather than just by shouting down anyone who disagrees with them.
Unfortunately many have achieved positions in politics, the national media, in particular the BBC, education and the Church, which gives them the chance to influence society in the malign way their stupid ideas demand. The vast majority of voters are instinctively tolerant, patriotic and proud of their nation's history, but they are being treated as uneducated morons by the self described socially aware.
Unless we act, the destruction warned of in the proverb will be visited upon us all. Orwell says of the proles in 1984 "if only they could somehow become conscious of their own strength, they needed only to rise up and shake themselves like a horse shaking off flies". The people must reject the siren voices of these demented crusaders and treat them as the self important, miserable, undisciplined, arrested adolescents they actually are.
Kent Messenger - 3rd September 2020
Those who set store by teacher assessments of potential examination results have a touching, but naive, faith in human nature, or, if politicians, they are being hypocritical.
The teachers at my co-educational state grammar school in the 1950s were excellent, but they worked in an environment where the girls were, for the most part, well behaved and diligent, while, as one might expect of adolescent boys, the latter were more rebellious, and not always as dedicated to their studies. During term time, and when end of term tests were set, it was the girls who always ended up in the top ten of the class, while the boys tended to languish in the bottom half. Teachers would be less than human if these facts did not affect their assessment of their pupils, and one knew that, if there were favourites, they was most likely to be found among the girls. However, when the important external examinations were taken, the boys did just as well, and sometimes better, than their female classmates, proving that to have relied merely on the opinions of teachers would have been unwise.
Unfortunately the education system has since become intensely politicised, with the teachers' unions dominated by the far left, who wish to obstruct and undermine anything a Conservative government tries to do, while for exam boards to allow teachers to decide on grades is to allow them to mark their own performance, as a class full of high achievers must reflect well on themselves. As a consequence one school gave A or A starred grades to every pupil, an absurdity, given that in the past there had been a normal distribution of grades. The national assessment average is 12% above last year's, hardly a realistic picture.
One would not know from the press coverage that 88% of pupils did get the university places they wanted, but the revised system may now mislead youngsters into taking on a significant debt in order to take courses which inevitably will prove unsuitable, with the result of either losing their investment, or emerging with degrees which will be of no use in the workplace.
The hypocrisy can be seen in the fact that one of Labour's front bench spokespeople said in April "We have always said predicted grades are not always accurate, and can disproportionately affect children who need most support", yet now Labour seems to regard teacher assessment as sacrosanct.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 28th August 2020
Adrienne Fitzwilliam rolls out the old argument that, as a government did not command an absolute electoral majority, it does not represent a majority view. This ludicrous assertion is repeated endlessly by the losers, despite the fact that in a country possessing a number of political parties it is inevitable, only one party dictatorships achieving massive votes in their favour. Indeed, in post war elections, only Attlee attained such a majority.
Her attacks on government personalities say more about her political leanings than their supposed failings. Priti Patel not only represents the majority who voted to leave the EU, but her views on penal policy, and illegal immigration, are shared by most ordinary people, and to be sacked by Teresa May, one of our worst ever PMs, is a badge of honour, not of disgrace. Dominic Raab, Matt Hancock and Rishi Sunak are also impressive ministers, while Boris himself stood up to the political establishment, and was instrumental in ensuring that the result of the referendum was finally honoured. The disaster of the coronavirus crisis would have tested any government, and I doubt that Labour or the Lib Dems would have handled it better. Ms Fitzwilliam refers to my 'beloved Brexit', but of course this was also beloved by a majority of voters, so I make no apology for supporting that democratic decision.
A N Towell also repeats discredited canards about the EU referendum, making clear that he has never accepted the result, while in matter of the responses to the virus, it is easy to criticise with the advantage of hindsight, but, given the current situation, it seems that the praise heaped on other nations has proved misplaced, our position now being better than many.
Finally Steve Barrass continues to write to us from the other side of the looking glass. The 2016 referendum was not won by a 'con-trick', but because the ordinary people had had enough of the EU. The real confidence trick was played by the entire political elite over decades, when they sought to convince the British people that the European project was merely a free trade deal, while in reality it was always intended to result in a single European state, with the UK being only a province, or possibly several provinces, within a federal organisation. It is time that the members of the European Movement accepted that they have been thoroughly rumbled, and to find some more productive area in which to expend their energies.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 21st August 2020
I assume that Richard Landolt's rose tinted spectacles are prescribed by teachers moonlighting from awarding inflated A grades to all their favourite pupils, as he is clearly unable, unlike Beatrice, to see a church by daylight.
The European political class, and their nomenklatura have spent their entire careers promoting the European project, and they are not going to admit its failure anymore than diehard Stalinists were to admit that of the Soviet system. In order to keep their show on the road they have been prepared to throw anyone under the wheels of that famous bus which Europhiles declared we must not miss, as evidenced by the massive unemployment foisted upon the younger generation in the southern EU states, particularly Spain, and the overriding of democracy which occurred both in Greece and in Italy, when unelected Gauleiters were appointed to run democratic countries.
Has Mr Landolt forgotten the ballyhoo which greeted the advent of the single currency, when so much was promised, and yet which delivered only misery for all those nations trapped inside a system orientated towards the interests of Germany, and which would inevitably render asymmetrical events disastrous to those countries which they afflicted, as they were unable to allow exchange rates to compensate. He clearly does not understand that the latest wheeze dreamt up by the federalists to keep their show on the road is in fact a doomed attempt to hold that single currency together, as once the latter collapses, the whole EU project will certainly follow. The Coronavirus Rescue Fund is nothing of the sort for the hard pressed nations of Southern Europe, as, at best, it offers only a possible stimulus of 1.4 percent of Europe's GDP by 2024, merely a fleabite compared to the amount that is needed now to make any real difference. We may thank our lucky stars, and the good sense of the British people, that we are no longer part of this failing organisation, as we have avoided being on the hook for a vast contribution to this so called rescue fund, at a time when we must look to saving our own economy.
I don't expect that we will wake up one morning to hear that the EU collapsed overnight, but what we are witnessing is a slow motion car crash, which may allow the organisation to stagger on for a few more years, before it becomes obvious to all that it has joined previous failed projects such as the Latin Monetary Union, a 19th-century system that unified several European currencies into a single currency, established in 1865 and finally abandoned in 1927.
As far his comments about the UK are concerned it is obviously right that the Celtic nations should, if they so wish, be granted full independence, but the latter must not involve the English continuing to pay their bills. I would point out that the Welsh actually joined the English in voting for Brexit, that co-operation between Belfast and Dublin is a good, not a bad thing, while the Scots voted No in the referendum for Scottish independence, as I suspect that the latter know which side their bread is buttered. It would be a pity if the UK were to breakup, but we will survive in much better shape than the EU will be in in years to come.
Kent Messenger - 20th August 2020
While we continue to fight an invisible physical enemy we in the UK, and the USA, must now turn our attention to a growing threat to free speech and democracy which has arisen, and must be defied and defeated if our way of life is to survive, namely the rise of political correctness seeking to corrupt our language, criminalise those who refuse to bend the knee, literally in some cases, and allow a group of morons, and arrogant ideologues, to gain power in our nation. Vociferous campaigns about, inter alia, gender identification, the destruction of cultural artefacts such as statues, prohibited language, trigger warnings, safe spaces and no platforming in universities, and anthropological climate change, all demonise anyone who dares to question the underlying premises.
The advocates of this ideology are convinced of their own moral superiority, for, as they claim to denounce all evils such as world hunger, or gender inequality, they believe that they obviously must be better than anyone else, and therefore have the right to direct the affairs of the nation. They are a self selecting elite, who do not require courage, intelligence or strength to belong, but are merely prepared to declare themselves supportive of every last one of the lunatic ideas they promulgate. They hate wealth, or personal success, regarding such things as the result of injustice somewhere in society, although they are not really sure where. Who cares if they can just denounce them anyway? They are great ones for demanding rights, but are not keen on responsibility, as this conflicts with their right to be unaccountable, otherwise they might be required to justify their views intellectually, rather than just by shouting down anyone who disagrees with them.
Much of the blame for this ridiculous state of affairs can be laid at the door of that most rotten of decades, the 1960s. So many of those who thought of themselves as the 'flower children', still seek to hang on to their youth by trying to retain the unthinking attitudes of arrested adolescents. They have never grown up, but unfortunately have achieved positions in politics, the media, education and the Church, which gives them the chance to influence society in the malign way their stupid ideas demand. In truth there is nothing more bullying, victimised, irresponsible, and hypocritical than these imbeciles. They are self important, miserable, undisciplined, and are constantly demanding satisfaction. Their ideology is one of sanctimonious, snivelling, spoilt children, and they should be treated as the half educated morons they are.
It is clear that we now need an active campaign to turn back the tide of nonsense threatening to sweep away all that is decent in our society.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 14th August 2020
Anthony Howell's attack on Boris Johnson clearly illustrates how infuriated those who have supported the cosy consensus politics of the past are to see a government which is basically in tune with the wishes of the majority of the people, something I cannot recall being true since the Attlee administration. Boris has ensured that the result of the Brexit referendum will be implemented, something which the political establishment spent three years trying to overturn by stealth, while his concern for the inequalities present in our country at last offers hope to the working class of the North, which has been shamefully neglected by the London centric elite of all the main parties.
Boris has appointed some excellent ministers, particularly Priti Patel whose views on penal policy, the EU and immigration are far closer to the opinions of the ordinary person than almost all of her predecessors, while he has not been afraid to promote on merit, without regard for ethnic origins, Ms Patel and Rishi Sunak being cases in point, proving that he is in fact the very antithesis of the kind of bigot his opponents make him out to be.
I doubt that anyone, faced by the coronavirus crisis could have been totally successful in responding, without some mistakes being made, but I would be interested to know who Mr Howell thinks would have handled the situation better. Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbot perhaps?
At a time when so many of our cherished liberties are threatened by the antics of the politically correct mob on social media, in the universities, and even the Church, whose ridiculous demands are too often acceded to by authorities who should stand firm, we need a common-sense government which will not yield to such nonsense. Boris is better fitted to do this than any of his opponents.
Kent Messenger - 13th August 2020
There may a case that the response to the coronavirus crisis is erring too much on the side of caution, but the rhetoric used by Miss V Hemsley-Flint is absurdly hyperbolic.
To call a government led by Boris authoritarian is ridiculous, as even those of us who support him feel that at times he is too inclined to lack firmness on certain issues. As far as describing the police as the Gestapo is concerned I can only assume that Miss Hemsley-Flint knows little of the reality. The Gestapo was not an organisation of bumbling incompetents, as portrayed to comic effect by Herr Flick in 'Allo, Allo', but was comprised of swine who would kill a child in front of its mother, and herd innocents to an undeserved death. That poor old Boris and Matt Hancock can be regarded as sadistic manifestations of Big Brother is also preposterous, as they have both suffered from the virus, and are clearly anxious to spare people from the same experience.
If Miss Hemsley-Flint wishes to put herself at risk by not wearing a mask then that is her decision, but she should not criticise those who are bearing a great responsibility in the overblown way she has chosen to do.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 31st July 2020
I suppose Steve Barrass deserves some sort of award for stubborn perseverance in the face of reality, although it would need to be in the category of 'there's none so blind who will not see'.
He advocates being a full participant in the European idea, despite the fact that it would be the equivalent of jumping onto a bus just as it was about to plunge over Beachy Head. He clearly does not understand that the latest wheeze dreamt up by the federalists to keep their show on the road is in fact a doomed attempt to hold the single currency together, as once the latter collapses, the whole EU project will certainly follow. The Coronavirus Rescue Fund is nothing of the sort for the hard pressed nations of Southern Europe, as, at best, it offers only a possible stimulus of 1.4 percent of Europe's GDP by 2024, merely a fleabite compared to the amount that is needed now to make any real difference.
We may thank our lucky stars, and the good sense of the British people, that we are no longer part of this failing organisation, as we have avoided being on the hook for a vast contribution to this so called rescue fund, at a time when we must look to saving our own economy. We now have the opportunity to implement such measures as free ports, and policies to help small farmers and fishermen, all previously restricted by EU rules. An active regional policy, something banned by EU rules, will also help even up the differences between the North and the South, as promised by Boris at the last election. The prospect of a No Deal is not one to be feared, but welcomed, as it would ensure that we had a clear, and final break, with rule by Brussels bureaucrats, and end, once and for all, interference by the politically driven European Court of Justice.
Once it becomes obvious to even the most blinkered European government that the EU is truly spitting into the wind, the whole federalist project will fall apart. Unfortunately for Mr Barrass he will then have to find another hapless enterprise to support. Perhaps the resurrection of Soviet communism might appeal to him?
Kent Messenger - 6th August 2020
The government is being criticised for reimposing quarantine on those returning from Spain, yet many of those castigating this decision would no doubt have attacked the authorities had they done nothing, resulting in a significant rise in coronavirus cases. It is easy to lambaste Boris with the benefit of hindsight, but I challenge critics to name whom they think would have been one hundred per cent successful in dealing with this crisis.
The last time a comparable pestilence appeared, over one hundred years ago, the government was not faced with the know it all hysterics of Twitter, or a national media always seeking to condemn its actions, however justified the latter may have been. No doubt some things could have been handled better, but, given the circumstances, Boris and his ministers have done as well as any government could have been expected to do.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 31st July 2020
Although, in response to the attack by Anthony Hoskins on my contention that progressive education is damaging to pupils, I provided evidence to support my claims he merely dismisses such. Does he really expect me to name individuals who would suffer the consequences if they were exposed as opposing the educational establishment, which would not tolerate such apostasy in their ranks? It is not an opinion, but a fact, that remedial courses exist to bring many undergraduates up to the standard necessary to pursue their chosen degree.
I make no claim that children have feeble brains, but point out that anyone can be brainwashed, and the younger the victim the more effective it will be. Again, I did not say that racism was subjective, but that the propaganda being used by the progressives is certainly so. It seems likely that Mr Hoskin must have been one of those subjected to progressive education, judging by his inability to read opposing arguments correctly.
Turning to Tim Wilson, I doubt that anyone, even Bertrand Russell, was wrong about everything, although in the latter's case he was about most things. I certainly did not say that all academics are Marxists, but very many are, and, as I pointed out before, lists of such are easily available on the internet. I also did not sneer at undergraduates, as I consider them to be the victims, not the perpetrators, of the failures of the educational system.
Mr Wilson's praise of universities has been somewhat undermined by the recently announced sensible decision by the government to end the commitment to send half of all youngsters to college. Since it was conceived by Tony Blair this misguided policy has not merely cost the taxpayers an enormous amount, but has misled children into taking on large debts, very often to no purpose, the so called benefits of a degree often being nothing more than a chimera. The effects on higher education has been disastrous, particularly combined with the absurd decision of the Major government to turn polytechnics into universities, which has led to the existence of too many universities, focused on earning sufficient tuition fees to survive, offering ludicrous degrees in subjects which will be of no use in the workplace, while a clear reduction of standards has been evident.
I do not understand what makes Mr Wilson believe that I am in any way embittered, or expect deference. As a working class boy I was lucky enough to receive a good education at a 1950s state grammar school, which led on to a decent career. What angers me is that, while public schools still offer a similar level of education, too many state schools are failing their pupils, particularly those from the working class, who are used as part of a social experiment by what has frequently been referred to, even by leading politicians, as the educational 'blob'.
I suspect that both Mr Hoskin and Mr Wilson are supporters of that particular phenomenon.
Kent Messenger - 23rd July 2020
The government is to be congratulated on ending the commitment to send half of all youngsters to university. Since it was conceived by Tony Blair this misguided policy has not merely cost the taxpayers an enormous amount, but has misled children into taking on large debts, very often to no purpose, the so called benefits of a degree often being nothing more than a chimera. The effects on the higher education has been disastrous, particularly combined with the absurd decision of the Major government to turn polytechnics into universities, which has led to the existence of too many universities, focused on earning sufficient tuition fees to survive, offering ludicrous degrees in subjects which will be of no use in the workplace, while a clear reduction of standards has been evident.
When I left my grammar school in the early 1960s the vast majority of my fellow students, having completed their A levels, began employment in banking, the civil service or commerce where training, or apprenticeships led on to fulfilled careers. The number going on to universities was small, and largely confined to those needing further education for such occupations as doctors, lawyers or scientists. As far as the universities were concerned the academic demands were high, and those who actually achieved a first very small, unlike today. This devaluing of standards has meant that anyone achieving a good second fifty years ago would now be regarded as a relative failure, compared to the absurd numbers of firsts currently granted. The idea, propounded by the educational establishment, that today's children are more intelligent, or better prepared for university than hitherto, are risible, and only serve to deceive youngsters into taking on courses for which they are unsuited.
If the government fulfils its promises to provide far more opportunities for apprenticeships, or other on the job training, this would offer much better prospects to future generations than wasting time and money on substandard universities. The argument that the latter at least allowed developing minds to be opened to different concepts, and a more sophisticated view of the world, have of course become irrelevant, as the intolerant atmosphere of modern campuses, where no platforming, trigger warnings and other similar asinine absurdities, have undermined the concept of free speech, and ended the idea of open debate, which once was a cornerstone of the whole purpose of education. One hardly needs mention those universities such as Cambridge, which now chase after fashionable opinions to the extent that they are becoming a laughing stock.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 10th July 2020
I assume that Anthony Hoskin would require official opinion polls, and signed statements, before he would accept that most children liked chocolate, and would reject empirical evidence, as it is the information received by means of the senses, particularly by observation and documentation of patterns, rather than endless sociological surveys.
To answer his questions in turn. That our education system has been undermined by progressive methods can be seen by examining outcomes, or as Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount "Ye shall know them by their fruits". While there are obviously many brilliant students, as for example those who amaze us all in University Challenge, there are so many more who, through no fault of their own, display vast gaps in their knowledge. Bertrand Russell said: "Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education" and, in academic language, the progressive school is a place where children go, not primarily to learn, but to carry on a way of life. Rather than teach history students about dynastic wars, significant individuals , or economic trends, children are asked to empathise with a peasant living at the time. This is to use schools as social indoctrination centres, and to neglect empirical facts and education in hard subjects like math and logic, in favour of subjective propaganda about social "causes" like racism, misogyny, economic inequality, and global warming. Children are easily influenced by authority figures, so it's easy to brainwash whole generations if you can catch them early enough. That's what progressive schools are for, not to teach any useful skills, but to socialise children into the pseudo liberal way of thinking before they're capable of critical thought.
It began in the 1910s and 1920s, as, when the socialist revolution failed to materialise beyond the Soviet Union, Marxist thinkers like Georg Lukacs declared that culture and religion blunted the proletariat's desire to revolt, and the solution was that Marxists should carry out a "long march through the institutions" of universities and schools, government bureaucracies and the media, so that cultural values could be progressively changed from above. The result has been that, as a friend who is a professor at a leading London university, has told me, many students, on first arriving, must be given remedial courses before they can begin the degree proper, yet are fully indoctrinated in so called progressive views.
If Mr Hoskin wishes to see a list of Marxist professors at our universities there are such available on the internet, while the revelations that a key leader of the anti Semitic BLM movement has stated that "Capitalism is terrorism", and that Churchill was an evil man, show how the far left is the inspiration for such organisations.
I think that those who write letters to newspapers, or ring radio programmes, might find it surprising that to state an opinion is somehow unacceptable, and I suggest that, in future, Mr Hoskin confines his reading to those who agree with him. Yours faithfully,
Kent Messenger - 9th July 2020
Contrary to the belief of Michael Charles I both understand, and support, the need for the media to hold power to account. However this requires that the media is not itself following a partisan agenda, which is clearly not the case with the BBC.
As far as the coronavirus crisis is concerned the obvious intention of the organisation is to present the government in a bad light, whatever the latter attempts to do. If lockdown is imposed interviewers raise alarms about the economic effects, while if it is lifted, the complaint is that lives are being put at risk, so Boris is damned if he does, and damned if he doesn't.
Turning to Brexit the BBC was blatant in its opposition to the Leave campaign in the run-up to the referendum, every current affairs programme, or discussion, being heavily loaded against those who supported leaving, audiences being clearly full of Remainers, while even comedy programmes took the same line, mocking the ordinary person who did not subscribe to the left liberal view. There was a nasty class based bias evident, as the wishes of the working classes, particularly those from the North, were derided as the product of ignorance, or prejudice, not a reaction to the negative results of EU membership experienced by those involved.
This pro EU zealotry has continued to the present. Those high priests of Remain, Kenneth Clarke, and Michael Heseltine are constantly wheeled out, despite the fact that the former is condescending, and patronising, towards those who dare to disagree with him on the EU, while the latter, if asked about the effects of heavy rain, would contrive, within the first few sentences to blame Brexit for bad weather, being both blinkered and unable to accept a democratic decision. Individual presenters have even been slapped on the wrist by the BBC for their obvious bias, but of course they continue, brazenly ignoring facts, as they parrot the opinions of their elitist peer group.
When one adds to this many other issues, such the one sided treatment accorded to those discussing climate change, where no opinion contrary to that of Greta Thunberg and her acolytes, is considered valid, one can see that the BBC lost its way many years ago, and is now no more than the mouthpiece of the liberal elite. As such it needs root and branch reform.
Kent Messenger - 2nd July 2020
Alan King is correct in his comments on the way extremists are playing a part in the BLM movement, and those, including the police, who chose to 'take a knee' should be aware of the nature of some of the aims of the organisation.
Not only do they wish to see an end to capitalism, which is a recipe for the impoverishment of everyone, they also call for the withdrawal of funding of the police, which would very quickly lead to anarchy, where the most vulnerable would go to the wall.
However the worst issue is the degree of anti semitism shown by many of the BLM supporters. Any competent student of history knows that the political spectrum is not linear, but circular, and that the far left, and far right meet, having much in common, being humourless and totalitarian, which inevitably lead to the creation of secret police, concentration camps and, always, an irrational hatred of Jewish people. In Paris a feature of a BLM rally was chanting of 'Dirty Jews', while a BLM supporting American rapper said of Jews 'all you have to do is stand up to them, and their little game is over'.
Of course ethnic minorities have genuine grievances which must be addressed, and the majority of those supporting BLM, are sincere and idealistic. However uncritical approval of the organisation, as evidenced by a great deal of media coverage, risks allowing those with much more sinister agendas to flourish. No sensible person would argue with the slogan 'Black Lives Matter', but so do Jewish lives, and indeed, all lives.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 26th June 2020
Unlike much of the national media the Courier has always shown a balance in the letters it publishes from members of the public. Obviously this is unacceptable to Malcolm Jenner, who would probably prefer if only those missives reflecting the views of so called progressives were printed.
As far as his defence of the BBC is concerned I remember when, in the 1940s, that organisation was venerated for the role it played during the war when, with Churchill, it truly 'Spoke for England'. For many years one would always trust its news output, and saw no obvious bias in its reporting.
Regrettably this is no longer true, the one sided views of its presenters being so egregious as to be almost laughable, were the situation not so serious. The manner in which it almost openly opposed Brexit, the unquestioning support it gives to the most extreme of climate change activists, and now the blatant attempt to demonise the government concerning the dreadful coronavirus crisis, where, by the use of hindsight, it tries to undermine everything Boris Johnson attempts to do, the aggressive, indeed hate filled, questioning we see night after night during the briefings being a disgrace.
The BBC does not represent the nation, but merely the prejudices of the denizens of Islington and Hampstead and it is well past time for root and branch reform of the organisation.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 26th June 2020
The majority of those taking part in the recent protests are understandably reacting to the deplorable action which resulted in the death of George Floyd, but their choice of targets is largely mistaken.
Churchill inspired the defeat of the worst racist regime the world has ever seen, Lincoln led the Union side in a Civil War which cost over 600,000 American lives, and ended slavery, while Gandhi gave the right of self government to hundreds of millions of Indians, yet all their statues have been defaced by false accusations of racism. Baden-Powell spoke of scouting as a brotherhood which disregards differences in class, creed, colour and country, and Cecil Rhodes, although no saint, campaigned against the disenfranchisement of black people, asserting the right of all literate men, of whatever colour, to vote, yet now these historical figures are accused of being unmitigated racists.
These kind of uninformed claims are the result of an inferior education system, which has been undermined by so called progressive methods, while those who do make it to university have endured brainwashing by the Marxist dons who dominate the latter institutions.
Those people who clearly believe in their cause should beware of the sinister figures who lie behind many of the protest movements in the West, seeking much more than the righting of a wrong, but are instead following a Marxist agenda aimed at overthrowing our liberal societies in the name of an ideology which has caused ten of millions of deaths since it was first loosed upon the world.
Kent Messenger - 25th June 2020
I am amazed at the patience shown by government ministers during the daily coronavirus briefings.
They are confronted by many journalists, particularly those from the broadcast media, who are self righteous, arrogant, aggressive and clearly following their own political agenda. These people use hindsight to criticise policies, constantly impugn the motives of the government, and present every action taken in a negative light.
That the BBC's director of radio and education should claim that his organisation is so free of bias even a Martian could see it is laughable. As a former councillor in Islington he may believe such nonsense, but, as anyone living outside the heartland of the metropolitan, pro Remain, elite can see, the BBC is totally dominated by those whose political views are completely opposed to the wishes of the electorate. These so called liberals will never understand, nor accept, that those who voted to leave the EU, and to make Boris the Prime Minister, clearly represent the majority of the British people.
I know from conversations with friends that the behaviour of such bigoted commentators disgusts many, as no effort is made to present an unbiased attitude, or to make a genuine attempt to elicit important information.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 19th June 2020
Although we are obviously focused on the coronavirus crisis we must not lose sight of the way in which our opponents are seeking to use the distraction it provides to gain advantages over us.
The EU negotiators are attempting to delay any trade agreement in the hope that the government will extend the period allowed for talks in order that we will be tied into their restrictive systems for much longer, giving them the opportunity to continue plundering our fish stocks, and permitting European judges to interfere with our sovereign rights to make our own agreements with other nations. Indeed some no doubt hope that, if they can delay long enough, they might find a Europhile party winning a general election, and reversing Brexit altogether.
The greater enemy, and I think it is not wrong to describe them as an enemy, is not the Chinese people, but the Chinese Communist Party. We have seen how their tolerance of wet markets, combined with a deliberate cover up of the danger posed by the virus, led to the disaster with which we are now dealing. That country has now compounded its deplorable behaviour by applying tariffs to Australian products because the latter dared to sponsor an inquiry as to the source of the pestilence, while it has announced that, should it develop a vaccine, it would be denied to the West. It is also clear that the CCP clearly intends to break its promises over Hong Kong, crushing democracy in that city, while it is increasingly threatening Taiwan with military force.
These facts provide a reason for the West to completely change its attitude towards China, as the idea that engaging them in the world's economic system would lead to them becoming less aggressive has been shown to be false. Under no circumstances should we allow them into our IT systems, should reject all further attempts to engage in changes to our infrastructure, and most important of all we must bring back manufacturing to this country, as we are far too reliant on Chinese products, which can be withheld at a moment's notice.
America has shown resolution in confronting the CCP, and it is surely time that we in the UK joined our allies in the USA, and in Australasia, in drawing a line in the sand. Our local MP has rightly used his position as Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, to address this matter, and we need such strong voices to raise the alarm, and put an end to appeasement.
The Chinese may protest, and threaten, but the survival of our liberal, free societies is at stake.
Kent Messenger - 18th June 2020
Mike Armstrong speaks for those irreconcilable Remainers who will never accept the result of the EU referendum, at least until the inevitable collapse of the Euro pulls down the entire organisation, and there is nothing left to remain in, or rejoin. They are comparable to those who still belong to the Flat Earth Society, in that they refuse to face reality.
Michel Barnier and his cronies are aiming to delay any trade agreement in the hope that the government will extend the period allowed for talks in order that we will be tied into their restrictive systems for much longer, giving them the opportunity to continue plundering our fish stocks, and permitting European judges to interfere with our sovereign rights. So far the UK government has treated them with the contempt they deserve, and I trust that this will continue to be the case, as to retreat over fishing rights would be to betray those working in one of the most dangerous jobs in the country, to extend the negotiating period into 2021 would render us liable for the massive demands for payments the Brussels bureaucrats are proposing for the future, and leaving the members of their very own Juke Box Jury, masquerading as the European Court of Justice, interfering in our affairs, would make it impossible for us to conclude trade deals with other nations around the world. All this would render Brexit nothing more than a hollow shell.
As far as his assertion about going it alone is concerned this is risible, as we continue to be the centre of the Commonwealth, the fountainhead of the Anglosphere, and the world language, and the possessor of historical commercial links around the world. The potential of trade with the USA, India, Australia,South Africa etc. makes clear that the negative trade balance we experience with the EU is something without which we can manage very well.
Kent Messenger - 11th June 2020
The hypocrisy of the left liberal elite when attacking Dominic Cummings is breathtaking. While trying to claim the moral high ground Labour spokespeople defend Steven Kinnock, who also travelled hundreds of miles during lockdown to visit his family, while the Scottish first minister at first tried to retain her associate who had visited her second home, a true breach of the regulations.
The reality is that these people hate Dominic Cummings and Boris Johnson for their major roles in achieving Brexit, the first real defeat the chattering classes have suffered for decades. A baying herd of journalists chose to inflate the matter in order to undermine the PM, and the government, while ignoring the real issues such as Chinese culpability for the coronavirus crisis. In this they have as their cheerleader the BBC, whose bias is obvious, the expression on the face of their presenters at the time of the referendum, and the general election, making clear where their loyalties lie, and their totally slanted reporting being a disgrace from a supposedly neutral national broadcaster.
The true driving force behind this are the continuing attempts by the establishment to undermine, and if possible reverse Brexit, and has nothing to do with the facts of the case.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 5th June 2020
No one should be deceived by the tone of moral outrage expressed by those seeking the downfall of Dominic Cummings, as this was a quality noticeably lacking when Stephen Kinnock also drove a considerable distance to see his family, and yet is welcomed into the shadow cabinet by Keir Starmer.
The reality is that both Cummings and Boris Johnson are hated by the left liberal elite because of their major contribution to Brexit, the first significant defeat the liberal establishment has suffered for decades. In this the latter is supported by their cheerleaders in much of the national media, in particular the BBC, whose one sided reporting on so many issues has been a disgrace, emanating from a supposedly neutral national broadcaster. When the electorate has shown time and again that they do not support the policies espoused by the metropolitan chattering classes, we have seen the slanted coverage, and clear bias of presenters constantly belittling popular opinion in favour of their blinkered views.
Cummings is a true iconoclast who, apart from wishing to free the UK from the dead hand of the Brussels bureaucrats, also wants to remove the stifling incompetence of our own own apparatchiks, who have presided over so many failures to properly exploit the creativity of the British people, allowing others to develop ideas, and inventions, first conceived in the UK. He has the potential to help ensure that our economic future can be bright, if his ambitions for the country are not undermined by those preferring to look backward. It is unsurprising that the ranks of bureaucrats who prefer complacency, and a quiet life, wish to see him gone.
It is also worth noting that both legal authorities, and the police force responsible for Durham, have concluded that Mr Cummings was not guilty of any illegal act.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 30th May 2020
At a time when brave NHS workers and others are risking their lives the teachers' unions are making unreasonable demands, deliberately preventing the reopening of schools. This in no way reflects on the courage and dedication of teachers, but shows just how their union leaders are continuing to pursue their rigid, politically motivated, agenda whatever the consequences.
As one who has been a lifelong trade union member, and was a branch official for many years, I have always regarded the function of unions is to protect members jobs, while ensuring that their wages are fair, and that working conditions are good. It is not to attempt to force employers to follow an agenda which arises from a particular political ideology, which moreover may not be shared by those the union claims to represent.
Over the years we have seen teachers' unions, inter alia, oppose selection, promote so called progressive theories of education, and try to undermine meaningful examinations, all in the name of supposed egalitarian ideals. The result has been a constant deterioration in standards, where large numbers of students have been misled into undertaking, and paying for, a university education for which they were unsuited, while eschewing a vocational path, which offers a better career to those less academically inclined.
This opposition to efforts to restarting the schools is not a result of a concern for teachers' well being, but is just another front in the union leaders' battle to undermine a government whose political philosophy they reject. In doing so they deprive those children who need the state schools, while leaving the children of those who can afford private education untouched. Of course this means little to these ideologues, whose pretended concern for the working class take second place to achieving their political aims.
Kent Messenger - 29th May 2020
Ralph Tebbutt is living in a dream world if he believes in a socialist utopia. With the exception of the democratic socialism practised by Clement Attlee's government after the war, when it was run by those who really prioritised the interests of the working class, socialist governments have been a disaster wherever they have been tried. One only has to look at Venezuela, which, despite possessing the greatest oil reserves on the planet, is an economic basket case, thanks to its socialist leaders, or Zimbabwe, where so called socialist ideals reduced the bread basket of sub Saharan Africa to an economic desert.
Centrally planned economies always fail because they operate against the grain of human nature, are incapable of forecasting supply and demand correctly and, when they are clearly not succeeding, their governments always resort to coercion. Unbridled capitalism is not desirable, but the answer does not lie with the ideologues of the Left, who, when they find that the world does not fit in with their theories, try to force the former to change, rather than accepting that the latter ideas are wrong.
When Michael Steed seeks to blame Brexit for our current problems he clearly does not realise that the members of the EU have unsurprisingly shown themselves to be concerned for their own people, not the interests of a putative European superstate, while he also does not recognize that it was the military, not NHS managers, that we have to thank for the Nightingale hospitals.
What is obvious is that those who support the theories of the Left espoused by the intelligentsia, not the working class, are trying to use the coronavirus emergency to advance policies which have been rejected time and again by the electorate.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 22nd May 2020
A Fry is absolutely correct in his comments on the failures of NHS managers during the current epidemic, who present such a contrast to the heroic efforts of the real health workers. Over the past few years we have seen the growth of a managerial culture which has taken over most of the public sector, against the interests of the vast majority of the population, who are excluded from this magic circle, but suffer the consequences of their actions.
Everywhere we look we see that whole layers of management have appeared who have no useful function, sucking the life from, and undermining the efficient administration of, public bodies. How often do we hear of senior managers, in local government, in privatised utilities or in bodies such as the NHS, the BBC and the transport industry, who are paid obscene salaries, completely out of line with the vast majority of their staff, who receive massive golden handshakes and golden goodbyes, who enjoy payoffs even when they have failed and who appoint each other to these lucrative positions, with no thought for the effect their selfish greed has on the country. That most have no knowledge of the organisations they infest but merely bring a supposed 'managerial ability' to them causes endless problems and destroys the very expertise which once distinguished such bodies.
Where once loyalty and competence were awarded the new managerial class want to ensure that no one remains within their organisations whose technical knowledge shows up the managers as largely useless passengers, so medical staff are ignored and disposed of in the NHS, expert railwaymen are unwelcome in their own industry, senior figures in education have no experience or real ability in teaching, and the ordinary members of the police force are misdirected by their politically correct superiors. When I joined the Civil Service in the early 1960s one knew that those in senior ranks had long experience of the tasks required, and a real knowledge of the organisation. Now senior managers come in at a high level, and take decisions which often have disastrous consequences, not least in the field of public expenditure.
Obviously no government of any complexion in a mixed economy can correct this situation throughout every organisation but there are large areas where a radical overhaul is possible and which would surely be welcomed by the majority of hard working people, who are sick of watching this layer of incompetents taking so much, while undermining the conditions under which most work. Clearly the Civil Service and local government can be influenced directly while much could be done via the public watchdogs on organisations such as the utilities and transport systems. Above all it requires a moral example which would ensure that the good of the nation and of its people takes priority over personal interests.
The national bodies which have proved themselves to be efficient and competent in this crisis are the Armed Forces, one area where expertise and commitment to the tasks undertaken are the main priority. The rest of the public sector has much to learn from their example.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 15th May 2020
How dare Adrienne Fitzwilliam accuse me of insulting care workers when I yield to no one in my admiration for, and gratitude to, these heroes and heroines.
My comments were aimed at those in the national media, who have made it their ambition to undermine the hope for better times that we must all feel if we are to overcome this vile virus. These people seem to believe that their function is to make the news, not report it, while many imagine that they are emulating Woodward and Bernstein in exposing the machinations of a guilty government, when in fact they are merely spreading despondency, rather like Private Frasier in Dad's Army, with his mantra of 'We're all doomed!'. No matter what the authorities do these pessimists criticise, either saying that they haven't taken one course of action, or that they have taken the wrong course, or that they were right in what they did but too late. Easy comments to make in hindsight, and without responsibility for making decisions.
From her comment on Brexit it is clear just where Adrienne Fitzwilliam's political loyalties lie, and I doubt that there is anything that Boris could do which she would not attack as being wrong.
Kent Messenger - 14th May 2020
David Topple misunderstands the reason for possessing nuclear weapons, as it is not in order to use them on others, but to deter our enemies from using them on us. If the democracies of the UK, USA, France and Israel did not hold such, ideological dictatorships such as China, theocratic regimes such as Iran, and paranoid despots such as the Kim dynasty in North Korea, would long ago have given us the choice of submission to their demands or destruction. Indeed Israel would probably have been given no choice but the latter.
Does Mr Topple really believe that, had Hitler or Stalin obtained nuclear bombs before the democracies, they would not have used them to win world domination.
Certainly we need to spend more on protecting ourselves from disease, but not at the expense of our freedom.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 8th May 2020
Steve Barrass is directing his ire against completely the wrong targets, as the governments of the UK and the USA have been doing their best to deal with a disaster of biblical proportions, while he offers praise to the true culprit.
Ignoring more sinister explanations the most likely origin of this plague is in the Chinese wet markets, which their government has tolerated, despite constant warnings of the dangers of so doing. When the existence of the coronavirus became clear that government then sought to suppress details, even persecuting doctors who tried to alert the world to the outbreak. Had they warned the world immediately the virus could have been suppressed. Since then the same governing party has employed all the black arts of propaganda to attempt to deflect blame onto others. The leadership he admires is in fact nothing more than the instinctive reaction of totalitarian despots when found culpable of despicable behaviour.
Where I do agree with him is that we must bring back manufacturing to this country, but we should also prevent China from having any part in our IT systems, and infrastructure, while severely limiting travel between that country and the West. The idea that engaging with them would lead to them gradually adopting the ideals of liberal democracy have been shown to be false, and it is time we in the West stood up to their bullying. Our futures depend on not appeasing this dictatorship.
Kent Messenger - 7th May 2020
We have long been accustomed to many cyclists, with their arrogant assumption that they are somehow morally superior to motorists, choosing to believe that the rules of the road do not apply to them, as they ride on pavements, without lights or ignoring traffic lights.
However they have now been equalled, indeed eclipsed, by those joggers who appear at one's elbow, sweating and panting, making no effort to observe any sort of social distancing. On country footpaths, or footbridges, they are impossible to avoid, so present a threat to those of us trying to take the exercise we need.
As there are currently no competitive races taking place, nor any prospect of any such in the near future, could these people either walk for exercise, or find a field which they can run round without approaching others?
Kent and Sussex Courier - 1st May 2020
Napoleon considered that the importance of the morale of an army was as to the physical as three to one, and, during the last war, Churchill, while not afraid of telling the truth about the ordeal being faced by the nation, nevertheless inspired the British people with a certainty that they would win through.
Now in the current health crisis we have the commentariat, and indeed many politicians and scientists, apparently determined to offer nothing but despair. We are told, inter alia, that vaccines may never be found, that the lockdown may take years, and that we may expect successive viral peaks to afflict us. The BBC in particular follows is own depressing agenda, motivated by its opposition to almost anything the Johnson government is trying to do.
The need for hope even in the darkest hours is paramount, and it is time the negativity of these Jeremiahs was replaced by a positive message that humanity will overcome this foul disease, and that life will return to normal, albeit with changes made to ensure that we are better placed to face another such challenge in the future.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 24th April 2020
As one who has been placed in the category of extremely vulnerable to the virus I wish to express my thanks to, and admiration for, those who are doing so much to help. Not only do we have a neighbour who purchases food for us at the supermarket, but there is also a lady who has collected vital prescriptions for the pharmacy, while another neighbour, who has two small children, nevertheless goes off to work as a doctor every day, knowing that she is placing herself at risk. In addition so many unsung heroes are, among other things, keeping the lights on, the water flowing, the food shops open, and maintaining the postal system. All these people represent the best of our nation, and we shall be forever grateful to them.
As far as the comments made by Janet Sturgis are concerned I am not angry, but do feel passionately about many issues, hardly the same thing.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 17th April 2020
Today we see ordinary people, in the NHS, the essential services, the transport network, and elsewhere, acting as heroes, putting their lives at risk to help others. Yet unsurprisingly many of the chattering classes, particularly the commentariat in the national media, constantly criticise whatever the government is trying to do, with a negativity which undermines our morale at this critical time.
No one in authority has faced such a crisis since the Second World War, and it is impossible to see how they could have done other than they have, given that many of the deficiencies which are now apparent were in existence long before they came to power.
It is also contemptible that the new Leader of the Labour Party, and his shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds, should choose this time to attempt to refight the battles over Brexit, seeking to delay, or even reverse the final exit from the EU. We must all pull together in this emergency, and those who are unable to overcome their obsession with a matter which is now irrevocably decided should grow up, and join the national fight against this foul disease.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 3rd April 2020
Intellectually we all know that one day each of us will die, yet, emotionally most of us don't really believe it. Now we all find ourselves staring into eternity our petty squabbles seem as Macbeth says of life "a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing".
The crisis has exposed the utter stupidity of so many of the causes which, in only what seems like yesterday, exercised the Western world, and endless column inches were used discussing concepts which are now seen as the absurdities which they always were. The distortion of our national life to accommodate the demands of a vanishingly small group of gender activists, the attempted imposition of a version of 'Newspeak' in order avoid supposedly offending the sensibilities of over sensitive individuals, the toleration of eco-warriors, who, in the name of an unproven theory, disrupt normal activities, can now be seen as the nonsense they always were.
The ridiculous actions by over privileged and ignorant students to impose 'no platforming' and 'trigger warnings' now, exposed by the cold light of reason, are being treated with the contempt they deserve, while various fatuous celebrities, who have long treated us to their inane idiocies, whether it be to describe themselves in the plural, or to drone on about their 'woke' credentials, suddenly find that the reaction is no longer admiration, but a demand that they grow up, shut up, and try living in the real world. The true celebrities now are the NHS workers, the volunteers who are helping keep the vulnerable supplied with essentials, and those who are trying to ensure that services such as water, power and transport continue to run.
If we survive this crisis I am sure that those of us who hold strong views on such matters as Brexit, or climate change, will resume our disputes, but I hope that no-one feels that whatever I may have said, and may say, about opponents, is more important than the fact that we are all in this together.
I am thankful that at the time of crisis we have a Prime Minister who is not only a libertarian, but competent, with a solid working majority, and whose senior ministers appear to be efficient. If we had an incompetent leader we would be in great trouble, and anyone with authoritarian leanings would represent a future danger to our democracy, as the powers which have become necessary could very easily also become permanent. Like any of us Boris has his faults, but we must get behind him in this emergency.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 27th March 2020
Harold Macmillan is often quoted, quite possibly erroneously , as having said that what he feared most was "Events, dear boy, events". Even if he did not say this it has taken its place as one of the most famous of political statements, as it actually encompasses a great truth.
Now, out of the darkness, conjuring up our most basic atavistic fears and instincts, has arisen a plague which, in a few short weeks, has turned our world upside down, and, in so doing, has relegated many of the things which have dominated the headlines for years to secondary concerns, even environmental alarmism and Brexit.
Nevertheless, although the virus crisis is deadly serious, and a tragedy for those who die, it has exposed a number of realities which have been ignored for some time.
The effects on supply chains makes clear that off shoring production has gone too far, leaving us dependent on foreign imports for even vital materials, and should provoke a return to this country of domestic manufacture of such goods.
The other most obvious result is to give the lie to the idealistic, but foolish, belief that, when threatened, nations will put membership of organisations such as the EU before the interests of their own people. The closure of European borders now taking place is quite understandable, laying bare the idiocy of the much trumpeted free movement principles supposedly so central to the European project, and the refusal of Germany to offer assistance to Italy with supplies of medical equipment shows that sauve qui peut, rather than one for all, and all for one, is the true watchword of the European project.
The choices facing the government are hard indeed, and those who constantly snipe from their armchairs should wake up to the fact that we must all pull together if we are to get through this emergency. It is easy to claim, when one has no responsibility to take decisions, that whatever measures are implemented are wrong, but now is the time for the kind of national solidarity we normally only see in wartime. The enemy is among us, and we must fight it shoulder to shoulder.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 20th March 2020
Your report on the dearth of grammar school places clearly shows that restrictions should be lifted, and that we return to the position as it was before so called progressives succeeded in closing down so many of these excellent schools.
When Attlee's great Labour government implemented the changes to the system in the 1940s it provided a means by which bright, working class children were able to receive a quality education, which led on to university, and decent careers. Both myself and my wife came from such backgrounds yet, by virtue of passing the 11 plus, were able to attend good grammar schools.
In the name of egalitarianism campaigners destroyed that system, and, by so doing, deprived those who could not afford public schools of the opportunities they might have enjoyed. As the liberal elite are now on the back foot, having been comprehensively defeated at the ballot box, there will not be a better time to revert to the position that existed before they interfered to the detriment of those from poorer homes.
Sunday Telegraph - 15th March 2020
Perhaps it is time to reprint the old wartime poster "Is your journey really necessary?"
Kent and Sussex Courier - 13th March 2020
I have no doubt that many people will be pleased by the court decision relating to a third runway at Heathrow, and as one who has not flown since 1968, I have no axe to grind on the specific issue.
However those who are pleased might reflect on the fact the the vociferous pressure group of extreme environmentalist, supported by a heavily politicised judiciary, has overturned a decision taken by our elected representatives.
The precedent set means that, in future, should the inhabitants of a town who desire that a by-pass be built, or an inadequate road upgraded, and have convinced their representatives at a local and national level that this should be done, they might find that nevertheless the project is blocked by unelected minority groups.
This can only be bad for democracy, as those who shout the loudest will override the wish of the silent majority.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 6th March 2020
It is unsurprising that Dr Alan Bullion, having failed in his efforts to subvert the democratic decision of the British people to leave the EU, should resort to directing sarcasm against those such as myself, who consistently, and successfully, pointed out the reasons why that choice should be honoured. Perhaps he would prefer that we all take the attitude of Voltaire's Dr Pangloss that "all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds", provided of course that one accepts that the wishes of the left liberals prevail.
So far at least the new government seems to be sticking to its promises vis-a-vis the EU, refusing to allow the European Court of Justice any jurisdiction over our affairs, rejecting the idea that we must accept EU diktats on standards, many of ours actually being superior to theirs, protecting our fishing grounds, and ending the suppression of working class wages by the import of unskilled labour.
It is ironic, but welcome, that a Conservative government should be defending the rights of hard working fishermen, and making clear to employers, who prefer to use cheap foreign labour rather than offering better wages and apprenticeships to indigenous workers, that they must mend their ways, while the Labour party is supporting those who wish to continue exploiting the latter.
As far as Dr Bullion's specifics are concerned I very much support NATO, the UN and the use of WTO terms for our future relations with the EU. I am optimistic that, if the government does not renege on its undertakings, we now have the opportunity for a much brighter future than beckoned before we left the sclerotic and declining EU.
Daily Mail - 26th February 2020
It is unsurprising that Priti Patel is the target of anonymous hostile briefings. For the first time in many years we have a Home Secretary whose views reflect those of the general public, so naturally they are anathema to the liberal elite, including the higher levels of the Civil Service.
I trust that Boris will back her against those who seek her downfall.
Times of Tonbridge - 12th February 2020
For a Remainer like John Reynolds to quote Kipling's 'If' in the context of Brexit is breathtakingly hypocritical. Far from those such as himself accepting defeat in the EU referendum they spent three years attempting to negate it, and now look set to emulate Achilles before the walls of Troy, by sulking in their tents for years to come.
The release of this country from the grip of arrogant, unelected Brussels apparatchiks is absolutely a matter for celebration, and has nothing to do with gloating over the minority who still support seeing the UK as a province, not a nation.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 31st January 2020
Although a minor matter in the great scheme of things the issue of Big Ben being sounded to celebrate the UK's departure from the EU illustrates the nature of those irreconcilable Remainers who are seeking to prevent such an event.
They prove themselves to be lacking in any understanding of the importance of such an historical moment for our country, very childish in stamping their feet at not getting their way, and totally undemocratic in their refusal to accept the decision taken by the British people. It is not surprising that such people support the EU, as that organisation's lack of respect for democracy mirrors their own.
I, and many others, will be celebrating on the night, whether or not the political establishment allows Big Ben to mark the occasion.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 24th January 2020
Brexit day, when we once again become an independent country, after over four decades of yielding control of our nation to the EU, is less than three weeks away.
There should be public celebrations to mark this momentous event, at least in the Leave supporting constituencies, such as Tonbridge and Malling, much as there was on VE day.
It should certainly be possible for beacons to be lit, and those churches possessing a peal of bells to ring them at 11:00 p.m. on the 31st January. For over three years the political class sought to frustrate the will of the people, and we have earned the right to salute the fact that they failed, and that Britain will once more be a sovereign democracy.
Kent Messenger - 23rd January 2020
Your correspondent Tony Banks is absolutely correct in his assessment of the matter of Big Ben being sounded to celebrate the UK's departure from the EU.
However what this issue also illustrates is the nature of those irreconcilable Remainers who are seeking to prevent such an event.
They prove themselves to be lacking in any understanding of the importance of such an historical moment for our country, very childish in stamping their feet at not getting their way, and totally undemocratic in their refusal to accept the decision taken by the British people.
It is not surprising that such people support the EU, as that organisation's lack of respect for democracy mirrors their own.
I, and many others, will be celebrating on the night, whether or not the political establishment allows Big Ben to mark the occasion.
Times of Tonbridge - 22nd January 2020
Brexit day, when we once again become an independent country, after over four decades of yielding control of our nation to the EU, is less than two weeks away.
There should be public celebrations to mark this momentous event, at least in the Leave supporting constituencies, such as Tonbridge and Malling, much as there was on VE day.
It should certainly be possible for beacons to be lit, and those churches possessing a peal of bells to ring them at 11:00 p.m. on the 31st January. For over three years the political class sought to frustrate the will of the people, and we have earned the right to salute the fact that they failed, and that Britain will once more be a sovereign democracy.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 10th January 2020
Barring an unlikely last minute betrayal the Battle of Brexit has been won, but the wider war against the metropolitan so called liberal elite is far from over. The pernicious opinions of these people have dominated the cultural and political life of our country since the 1960s, and they remain in positions of power, from whence they undermine our way of life.
Although a few still believe that they can derail a true Brexit, many have now switched to one of their other obsessions, namely climate change. The green fanatics would rather we all sat in unheated and unlit homes, while China and India continue to merrily open new coal fired power stations every week, than admit that their demands are unrealistic. They indulge in group think, and worship at the feet of a silly little girl, while ignoring those sensible adults who point out that anthropological global warming is not a proven fact, and seek to make reasonable changes, in a practical time frame, rather than shouting hysterically about climate emergencies.
They also advance the claims of those who seek to impose the desires of vanishingly small minorities upon the vast majority of the population, corrupting the whole idea of free speech in their efforts to close down debate. In this they are ably assisted by the bias displayed on the BBC, and other media outlets, while Marxist activists in the education system are brainwashing youngsters into believing that their twisted view of the world is correct. Their influence on penal policy has led to carnage on the streets of London, as criminals are appeased, rather than punished, and the police pursue thought crime as a priority.
This cultural war will be hard to win, but it must be fought if common sense is to be restored to the affairs of our nation.
Kent Messenger - 9th January 2020
The rump of Remainers who still persist in claiming, against all evidence to the contrary, that they did not lose the argument about EU membership, are similar to those few eccentrics who form the Flat Earth Society, fighting a cause which is irretrievably lost, although the latter do far less damage than those trying to sabotage our future as an independent nation.
The EU is similar in intent, although not in method, to all the previous attempts to create a single European state, from Napoleon's empire, through the fascist's New Order, and even, on a lesser scale, the 19th Latin Monetary Union, and, as always, it will fail. The ideal model for Europe is a continent of democratic nations, friendly, but not politically fused, yet still we see deranged attempts to force the disparate states into one unit, which would inevitably lead to internal conflict, and eventual disintegration.
This fate is now looming for the EU, as the single currency falls apart, and the interests of the Mediterranean nations prove to be incompatible with those of Germany, the maritime powers bordering the Atlantic differ from the landlocked East, and the cultural and political nature of such a diversity of countries cannot be reconciled.
Kipling, writing in 1897 of the eventual end of the British Empire, summed up the fate of all such vainglorious entities, which seem so permanent, then disappear into Trotsky's dustbin of history "Lo, all our pomp of yesterday, Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!". A fitting epitaph for the EU.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 3rd January 2020
The results of the general election confirm, if confirmation was needed, that the British people wish to leave the EU. Despite this a hard core of Remainers still refuse to accept the fact, and selfish obsessives like Gina Miller still imagine that she can use the courts to frustrate the will of the people, although it seems the government intends to implement legislation which will prevent such vexatious litigation.
That these people will not accept the result of democratic votes merely demonstrates that they are indeed natural supporters of the EU, the latter being an autocracy which is fundamentally undemocratic. In addition their desire for our country to be subsumed into a single European state makes clear that they lack a patriotic belief in their own nation.
As we begin to move back to being an independent, sovereign state once again one might have hoped that the Remainers would now join the vast majority seeking a brighter future, but unfortunately it seems that there are many who will never concede that they have lost the argument, not once, but twice. We must hope that they will soon disappear into irrelevancy, something which their beloved European Union will also do as its internal contradictions slowly tear it apart.
Times of Tonbridge - 31st December 2019
In 1946 Clement Attlee, Labour's greatest Prime Minister, admonished Harold Laski, Chairman of the Labour Party, with the pithy remark "a period of silence on your part would be welcome". This advice should be heeded by the rump of the Remainers, who believe either that they can still somehow prevent Brexit, or else create a 'rejoin' movement to reverse the decision to leave at a later date.
Given that the people have twice voted to Leave it is certain that such a party would not prosper while, in a few years time, the EU will in all probability have disintegrated, with perhaps only a few dependent satellite states of Germany remaining.
The Remainers should cease their carping and get behind their own country as it strikes out for a great and glorious future.
The Sun - 26th December 2019
As well as allowing Big Ben to sound would it not be appropriate to light a series of beacons across the country to celebrate our freedom from the EU?
Kent Messenger - 19th December 2019
Now that the alliance of Remainers, Marxists and metropolitan left liberals have been routed at the ballot box the government has a golden opportunity to return our country to the path it should never have left, and restore sense to our political system.
Obviously implementation of a clean Brexit must be the first priority, but there are other constitutional changes which should be made as soon as possible. The Fixed Term Parliament Act, which allowed the opposition parties to place Parliament in deadlock should be abolished, while the recommendations of the Electoral Commission regarding constituency boundaries must be put into effect, to prevent an unfair advantage being given to the opposition parties. In view of the success of the SNP Scotland a referendum on Scottish independences should be granted, on the clear understanding that if the Scots vote Leave, then they become a separate country, which we will not supply with funds.
The defences of the nation are in dire need of strengthening, in particular the Royal Navy requiring a significant number of new warships, and there must be enough coastal defence craft to ensure that we take back control of our fishing grounds.
The cultural Marxists, whose pernicious influence in our education system has led to youngsters being uninformed as to the realities of Communist rule, must be removed, while the BBC stables need cleansing, as the unbridled bias shown by the organisation is a national disgrace. Funding for Channel 4 should also be removed, as the bias shown thereon is often even worse than the BBC.
The use of Health and Safety zealots to interfere as they wish must be stopped, and the ridiculous targets demanded by the environmental lobby regarding energy supplies must be labelled as such, any necessary changes managed over a reasonable time, while the humourless bigots on social media, who take offence at every turn, moaning and nagging, should be completely ignored.
For the sake of those youngsters being stabbed in London on a daily basis, and for the safety of us all in the face of terrorist outrages, an end to soft penal policies is essential, and the police directed to fight crime, not police peoples' thoughts.
If even half these actions were to be taken Britain would return to being the country most of us love.
Daily Mail - 15th August 2019
By the time of the next general election the success of an independent Britain will expose the warnings of the Remainers to have been no more than tales told to frighten children.
Sunday Telegraph - 15th December 2019
Following this election, once the government has implemented Brexit, it has the opportunity to turn the country back to the path it should never have left, of being a truly global nation.
The idea of geographical proximity being a determining factor in international relations is outdated, its place taken by cultural affinity. Britain must now strengthen its ties with the English speaking worlds of the Anglosphere, and the Commonwealth, while leaving the EU to continue its decline to irrelevancy.
By the time of the next general election the success of an independent Britain will expose the warnings of the Remainers to have been no more than tales told to frighten children.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 13th November 2019
Richard Mountford describes Britain outside the EU as alone, as if this were 1940. In reality we will still be at the heart of the Commonwealth, an economic area with tremendous potential, the fountain head of the world language, a central part of the Anglosphere, containing, inter alia, the USA, Canada, India and Australia, the second most powerful military member of NATO, and one of the nations comprising the five eyes security network. Our geographical position puts us in an ideal place in the time zones for trade, and our maritime heritage enables us to look to the world, not just across the Channel. Contrary to his claims the facts about the nature of the EU being an autocratic, undemocratic and dysfunctional organisation have been well known for years, and have not just come to light.
The Northern Ireland issue is merely a red herring, raised by the EU in an attempt to derail Brexit, and presents no threat to the peace process, while, if the Scots wish to leave the UK, so be it, but the wishes of just over five million in Scotland must not be allowed to take precedence over those of more than sixty six million English.
As far as Richard Landolt's latest defence of Brussels is concerned the reason our political system has become risible is not due to Leavers, but to the fact that Remainers such as himself refuse to accept that they lost a democratic vote. His claims that I do not offer a better alternative are nonsense, given that I frequently point out that Britain is well placed to secure trade deals across the world, while remaining a leading member of NATO, and continuing as one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. In contrast his beloved EU is heading for disaster, as recession beckons, and the Euro begins its inevitable decline.
Our country deserves better than to wither away as a subservient province of a single European state, as will be its fate if the Remainers get their way.
Kent Messenger - 5th December 2019
Although it comes as no surprise the election leaflet from the Liberal Democrats is breathtaking both in its arrogance, and in the way it makes clear the contempt in which it holds the ordinary citizen.
Despite the fact that a clear majority voted to leave the EU, in the greatest democratic exercise ever seen in these islands, this totally misnamed party demands that the will of the people be ignored, and Brexit be cancelled. One can only assume that had these people a favourite football team in the FA Cup Final which lost, they would just demand that it nevertheless be declared the winner.
Those of us who had hoped that the class divisions which once so divided Britain had faded after the war have been disillusioned by the reaction to the referendum, which has illustrated that class snobbery is alive and well in our country. Those of us who dared to defy the received wisdom of the middle class elitists, and voted to leave, have been subjected to a barrage of insults, ranging from ill informed or deceived by Mr Putin, through moronic, to such epithets as the great unwashed. This despite the fact that those, such as myself, worked for over forty years in Whitehall, and many prominent Leave supporters are extremely well educated university professors, Peers of the Realm and MPs etc.
There can be no doubt that Brexit has become a matter of supercilious elitists showing utter disdain for those they consider their intellectual inferiors, and nowhere is this more true than in the ranks of the Liberal Democrats, whose devotion to the autocratic, and incompetent EU, demonstrates their own ignorance of the reality.
Times of Tonbridge - 20th November 2019
Alexander Manus is both patronising and arrogant in his belief that supporters of leaving the EU obtain their facts from the side of a bus. Does he really believe that those of us who have actually read the Treaty of Rome, and have spent years opposing the dysfunctional and undemocratic Brussels regime have not thought long and hard about the issue. The destruction of our nation's sovereignty and independence, and yielding to rule by unelected apparatchiks are reasons we have sought to leave this organisation.
As far as the claim that the European project was created to maintain peace, this is arrant nonsense. It was the standoff between NATO and the Warsaw Pact which ultimately avoided conflict, and the EU has itself endangered peace by its interference in the Balkans, and by provoking Russia in areas such as the Ukraine, as the former is unsurprisingly very sensitive to what it sees as encirclement.
Those such as Mr Magnus who now think that it is valid to count all those who chose not to vote in the referendum as Remainers are obviously unaware that only Attlee gained more than fifty per cent of the vote in any general election since the war. It is those who vote who determine the result.
The true scandal is that the losers in the greatest democratic vote ever taken in these islands refuse to accept that they lost, and are using what Mr Magnus describes a fake news to try to overturn the decision.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 15th November 2019
With an election now upon us it is time that we seriously considered the consequences of remaining in the EU, should the Remainer parties fool sufficient numbers of people.
We shall remain shackled to an economic area which is rapidly losing its share of world trade, with deleterious effects on our export industries, while the inevitable collapse of the Euro will involve us paying vast sums, better spent at home, in futile attempts to save it.
The Westminster parliament will be reduced to no more than a rubber stamp for bureaucratic diktats, none of which our elected representatives will have the power to change, while the rise of right wing parties across the EU will infect our body politic with racist and anti semitic attitudes.
The creation of armed forces for the EU will lead to conscription, the best we can hope for being that there will be no middle class exemptions, as happened in the Vietnam war, so the burden will not fall only on the working class.
If all this, and more, comes to pass let us at least not forget that it was those who refused to accept that they had lost a democratic vote who brought us so low.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 11th October 2019
The decision by a group of politicised judges makes clear that the establishment has closed ranks, in a conspiracy with MPs who represent only themselves, in order to frustrate the explicit wishes of the British people.
The Remainers failed to win at the ballot box, so lie, and cheat, and betray democracy, in order to get their way. These biased MPs and judges have no more right to tell us what to do than would a group of drinkers sitting around a table in a public house, laying down the law in their cups. They may call each other honourable, or 'My Lady' or 'My Lord', but they have forfeited the right to such titles, being no more than one pressure group among many.
Thanks to the actions of those who lost democratic votes refusing to recognize the fact, we have arrived at a situation where the elected representatives are reneging on their duty to abide by their promises, and their allies in the judiciary are supporting them in treating democracy with contempt. Therefore we no longer have the obligation to treat the decisions taken by these people as democratically legitimate.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 4th October 2019
The main premise of the long letter from John Bailey is incorrect, in that he believes that to be opposed to membership of the EU is a mark of those with right wing opinions, when in fact the most consistent, and principled opposition has always come from the democratic left. Leading Labour figures such as Clement Attlee, Tony Benn and Michael Foot were totally against the UK joining the European project, and it was only when Kinnock, followed by Blair, took the Labour party away from its founding principles of democratic socialism that Europhiles came to dominate the leadership.
It may have escaped Mr Bailey's notice that the most significant areas supporting Leave in the referendum were in fact those of the industrial North, where the working class has seen just how badly membership of the EU has damaged their interests. Indeed the entire issue of Brexit has become one of class, as selfish middle class metropolitan liberals seek to override a democratic decision taken by those they arrogantly regard as ignorant or prejudiced.
Those whom Mr Bailey describes as one nation Tories are better described as no nation Tories, in that they wish to see our independent nation state become no more than a province, or provinces, within a single European state, to which the ordinary person will have no allegiance, beyond that forced on them by unelected bureaucrats. In 2017 these people stood on a manifesto promising to honour the result of the referendum, but have since reneged on that undertaking, and so hold their positions illegitimately.
As far as Tim Wilson is concerned I am certainly not confused about the position relating to our legal system. We use Common Law, the EU uses Napoleonic Law, and the two systems are incompatible. The latter weights justice heavily against the individual, and in favour of the state, and anyone who studies how it operates throughout the EU should fear its enforcement here. His final point about parliamentary scrutiny is laughable, given that Europhile MPs have allowed endless laws and regulations to be applied to this country without any genuine consideration by our elected representatives. Only when they see that they may no longer get their own way do they start shouting about the democracy they have so grievously betrayed.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 27th September 2019
The scenes in parliament this week would have disgraced an infants school. Hundreds of representatives of the people praising one of the most biased Speakers ever to have dishonoured that office, then stamping their feet because they have yet to succeed, in direct contravention of their manifesto commitments, in overturning the result of the EU referendum.
These people have treated the electorate with contempt, humiliated our nation before the world, and encouraged the bureaucratic rulers of the EU to dig in their heels, and refuse to negotiate on any reasonable basis.
One can only hope that, when we finally get the general election which is so obviously necessary, that these dishonourable members are thrown out, never to return.
Times of Tonbridge - 18th September 2019
It may surprise Alexander Magnus that even a leaver such as myself has read Voltaire, and it is not I who is the Dr Pangloss, but rather himself, who clearly uses very thick rose tinted glasses to view the undemocratic, economically declining EU, run by arrogant and incompetent bureaucrats.
Events in parliament make clear that this country is no longer a democracy, as the majority of MPs now represent only themselves, not their constituents. Accordingly no laws passed by them possess democratic legitimacy, while any emanating from a Brussels regime rejected by the British people are equally invalid.
We therefore have no moral obligation to obey such laws, and any democrat on a jury faced with charges relating to them should vote for acquittal. Civil disobedience, as espoused by Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Junior, has a proud history, and now remains the only way in which the people can hope to prevail over the establishment.
Daily Express - 17th September 2019
The pledge by the Lib Dems to cancel Brexit shows them to be arrogant elitists, and makes a mockery of their name, as they are clearly neither liberal nor democratic.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 30th August 2019
The claim made by John Champneys that the majority in the 2016 referendum was tiny is nonsense, as it actually exceeded the combined populations of Sheffield, Leeds and Newcastle, while his contention that it was flawed is totally unjustified, it being a straightforward binary decision. What he really means is that he cannot stand the fact that his side lost.
Even more risible is his contention that the circumstances are different, as the fundamental position is, and will always be the same. There are underlying differences in philosophical attitude between the Europeans and the British, which can never be bridged.
In their view everything is forbidden, unless it is permitted by law, whereas in Britain everything is permitted, unless it is forbidden by law.
We believe in innocent until proven guilty, but the EU's Corpus Juris asserts guilt unless innocence is proved, thus placing the burden on the accused, not the state.
The EU operates on a top down principle, while we believe that power should reside in the common people, so, where we desire rule by democracy, those in charge of the EU see themselves as some sort of latter philosopher kings, as envisaged by Plato, wielding authority without accountability.
As is common with the kind of supposedly utopian schemes adopted on the Continent the assumption is that the theory predominates, and the real world must adjust to that, inevitably causing strife when reality refuses to conform, whereas we prefer a pragmatic and empirical approach, finding what works, and using that as the basis of our actions.
That great man General de Gaulle recognized these basic differences between Britain and Europe, and it is a tragedy that it has taken decades for the truth of his statements to become clear, for otherwise we could all have avoided the years of misunderstanding which have resulted from our joining an organisation which represents the antithesis of what we truly are.
Times of Tonbridge - 28th August 2019
It is pointless for Alexander Magnus to ask Leavers to answer his questions if the responses are not printed.
While Tunbridge Wells voted to Remain in the EU referendum the voters of Tonbridge and Malling, where your publication is distributed, supported Leave by a margin of 12%.
Nevertheless the number of letters you publish from the former far outnumber those sent in reply, sometimes two or three from Remainers appearing each week, while only occasionally is a missive from a Leaver printed.
This bias is deplorable in that not only do neutral observers receive a totally false impression of local public opinion, but the wish of a majority of the electorate is treated with contempt.
As far as Mr Magnus is concerned he deliberately ignores the fact that the Prime Minister gives greater weight to the reality of seeing our democracy destroyed if we remain within the EU, than of pandering to those who are promoting an unproven theory of anthropological global warming. In addition the EU itself imports vast amounts from China and the rest of the world, so his concerns about transportation are merely another red herring, aimed at overturning the referendum result, and allowing the losers to get their way.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 16th August 2019
The letter from Paul Bailey shows that he, and his fellow Remainers do not understand why I, and millions of others, voted to leave the EU. Although trade is important such considerations were eclipsed by the desire to preserve our democracy, which we spent so many years creating, and in the defence of which which so many died.
If we remain in the EU this country would be no more than a province in a single European state, ruled by unelected officials, over whom we would have no control. The recent farce of the election of Ursula von der Leyden as President of the European Commission illustrates how the EU regards democracy, as MEPs were given a ballot with just one choice on it, for a woman who is in favour of an EU Army and has stated that "my aim is the United States of Europe". An election with one candidate is not an election.
As far as trade is concerned Mr Bailey's dire warnings about a No Deal Brexit are just a renewal of the discredited 'Project Fear' promoted by the Remain side at the time of the referendum, whose every dire forecast of economic disaster have been shown to be no more than duplicitous assertions, intended to scare the electorate into voting to stay in the EU. We run a constant deficit in trade with the EU, unlike the surplus we enjoy with the rest of the world, and free of Brussels, we will be once more an independent, major global trading nation.
How Mr Bailey can claim that the majority of people do not want Brexit is beyond me, as the result of the referendum proves otherwise, while the costs of a No Deal are minimal compared with the 39 billion pounds Theresa May was willing to pay to the EU. Clearly she forgot that, as Rudyard Kipling's poem famously said "once you have paid him the Danegeld, You never get rid of the Dane".
Finally it is not surprising that so many MPs want to remain in the EU. It offers them an enhanced career structure, with the possibility of becoming an MEP, being grossly overpaid for pretending to represent the people in that fig-leaf for democracy, the European Parliament, while a lucky few may become European Commissioners, wielding power without accountability, and enjoying an obscene level of salary while doing so. Their self interest trumps any consideration of the well being of those they represent.
Daily Mail - 15th August 2019
The members of the dream team proposed by Caroline Lucas are connected not by their gender, but by their desire to disregard the result of the EU referendum.
Priti Patel and Theresa Villiers would not be welcome, despite being successful female politicians, because they do not subscribe to theLiberal-Left agenda.
Daily Telegraph - 8th August 2019
The all female dream team proposed by Caroline Lucas is more a nightmare line up of anti democratic appeasers who wish to frustrate the will of the people, connected not by their gender, but by their desire to disregard the result of the EU referendum.
Of course patriots such as Priti Patel and Theresa Villiers would not be welcome, despite being successful female politicians, as they do not subscribe to the left liberal agenda espoused by Ms Lucas.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 9th August 2019
Although the letter from Remain supporter Andrew Fry is refreshingly free of abuse directed at those who think differently I am afraid that he is ignoring the elephant in the room, which is that no amount of common-sense or spirit of compromise can overcome the fact that the issue of the referendum and its implementation is a binary one. As with pregnancy we are either in the EU or we are not.
In the first case the referendum result is honoured and the UK leaves the EU completely, becoming once more a totally sovereign power, free to make its own decisions unhampered by any interference from the latter, in the same way that nations such as Japan, Brazil or the USA are free of Brussels, no authority granted to the European Court of Justice, or to unelected bureaucrats.
In the second case, in which the referendum result is ignored, or nullified by being Brexit in Name Only, control of our affairs would remain with the EU, our trading arrangements would be set by the latter, and, in time, our democracy would be extinguished.
If we leave entirely then not only would we be able to turn back to the path we should never have left, of being a global trading nation, possessing full independence, but the EU would be relieved of our presence, allowing them to proceed to the creation of the single European state they so desire, without being held back by British objections.
In the other scenario the majority of British voters, having been treated with contempt, will be so alienated from the political class that our democracy would be imperilled, not merely by the EU, but by the failure to deliver a democratic decision, while the EU will be constantly at loggerheads with a basically unwilling participant in its federalist project.
The genie cannot now be put back in the bottle, and it is up to those who lost the referendum to accept the fact and move on, looking to a future free of entanglements with the EU. That would be the common-sense, and realistic way forward for the UK.
Daily Telegraph - 8th August 2019
The latest absurdity from the renewed Project Fear is that a no deal Brexit would lead to serious food shortages, yet another straw man created by the Remainers.
It hardly needs answering but, quite apart from the fact that we managed perfectly well before we joined the European project, I remember that, in my early childhood, we lived with food rationing, and, although restricted in choice, we did not suffer unduly.
We did so because we valued our democracy more than we feared any temporary inconvenience, and this is true today, as we struggle to regain our freedom to control our own affairs, liberated from rule by the unelected bureaucrats of Brussels.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 2nd August 2019
Richard Landolt typifies the Remainer minority in this country, whose pessimism, and lack of belief in Britain, has undermined our nation for too long. While it is true that we are no longer the world dominating power we were for the century following victory at Waterloo, neither are we some minor state, in desperate need of assistance from a Brussels dominated by Germany, which did us so much damage in two World Wars.
Unlike the other EU nations we are the centre of the Commonwealth, a dynamic and growing part of the world, the fountainhead of the world language, and of the Anglosphere, containing our greatest ally the USA, and have the geographical position, and the historic trading links, to make the UK once again the major hub for global commerce. Far from being Little England we can stand tall among the nations of the world, rather than accepting the status of a province of a declining, and eventually doomed, United States of Europe.
The 39 billion pounds demanded of us by the EU could be far better spent on restoring the Royal Navy to its historic role as one of the predominant maritime forces in the world although, as Mr Landolt refuses to recognize, even now no potential aggressor nation would regard lightly taking on a country possessing that Navy, the RAF, the British Army, and the Trident submarines. We are not the seven stone weakling of his imagination.
Daily Mail - 25th July 2019
It is disgraceful that one of the first statements made by the new leader of the Liberal Democrats is that she will work to overrule the clearly expressed will of the British people. Her party is neither liberal, nor democratic.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 19th July 2019
The proposals made by the EU to replace those at the top of the organisation should give pause to anyone, except fanatical Remainers, who doubt the wisdom of Brexit.
Ursula von der Leyen, the German defence minister, who has been picked to succeed Jean Paul Juncker as EU Commission President, has stated that her goal is a United States of Europe, based on the model of the federal states of Switzerland, Germany or the US, clearly giving the lie to those who contend that the ultimate aim of the EU is not to create a single European state, in which the individual countries would be no more than provinces. She has also described Brexit as "a burst bubble of hollow promises", obviously being unable to accept democratic decisions, while advocating the creation of EU armed forces, another idea which Remainers have always falsely claimed is untrue. Perhaps a guide to her real abilities can be seen from a poll in Germany which reveals that just 33% of Germans think she's a good choice for the top EU role.
Among the other nominees are the IMF's Christine Lagarde for the European Central Bank. who was previously found guilty by a French court of charges relating to negligence for her role in a financial scandal, hardly a recommendation for the post.
All of those put forward for the senior posts are convinced federalists, and as usual the proposals are the result of a Franco-German stitch-up, combined with the arrogance of the self selecting oligarchy which dominates the European Union. We are not leaving a moment too soon.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 21st June 2019
Those tempted to support the Green party, either because they believe that the claims made by the latter are indisputable facts, or feel that it represents the superior moral position, should be wary. While Green policies, such as caring for animals, or reducing plastic waste, are good causes, we should be very careful of regarding the theories of the environmentalists concerning anthropological global warming as proven beyond doubt, and therefore we should certainly consider whether we really wish to make the sort of fundamental changes to our societies which they demand.
We are still within an Ice Age, and the period of little glaciation, which has now lasted about 10,000 years, is just an inter glacial, which is already longer than previous ones, and for years many scientists stated that the glaciers could begin to march again at any time. In addition there are explanations for changes in climate other than anthropological action. The collective effects of changes in the Earth's movements on its climate over thousands of years, mean that variations in eccentricity, axial tilt, and precession of the Earth's orbit indicate cyclical variation in the solar radiation reaching the Earth, strongly influencing climatic patterns on Earth.
Of course this does not suit the Green fanatics. These people are authoritarian, verging on fascists, who will brook no opposition to their theories, or their insane demands that we abandon the sources of energy which keep our economies functioning. They would rather we were all sitting in caves, rubbing two sticks together for warmth, than admit that they could be wrong, but to abandon all viable means of producing energy, such as nuclear power, is frankly insane. One wonders just how many potential Green voters realise that their use of cars, air travel, or even their beloved mobile phones and computers, would be under threat if these zealots have their way. Those children who shout about 'save the planet' would soon change their tune if they had to walk to school.
Daily Mail - 12th June 2019
For the past three years we have seen the deplorable bias of the BBC on display, as it has made clear its support for the Remain side in the referendum.
Now this organisation intends to penalise those over 75, who may not qualify for pension credit, but for whom the licence fee represents a significant cost.
It is past time for the BBC to be privatised, as it enforces payment on all, yet only represents the views of a narrow, metropolitan elite.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 31st May 2019
The reactions of the political establishment to the results of the European elections shows that the former are completely detached from reality. When the Labour voter plummets in working class areas the shadow foreign secretary declares that it is because the party is not sufficiently supportive of Remain, ignoring the fact that the Leave vote was won by those very voters, while the Europhile youngsters who acclaim Jeremy Corbyn as leader seem unaware that he has opposed the EU for his entire political career. The Liberal Democrats make a mockery of their name by seeking to negate the political decision taken by the people, and Conservative party Remainers decry a No Deal, when it is now the only way to honour the result of the referendum. In addition biased media organisations such as the BBC seek to pretend that somehow Remain won the European elections, despite the crushing victory by the Brexit party.
All this is eclipsed by the fact that our politicians refuse to acknowledge that the EU is not a democracy, but is, as it was designed to be, a bureaucratic dictatorship. The real reason so many of the denizens of the House of Commons support Remain is because it is in their personal self interest to do so, and has nothing to do with the welfare of this nation or its people.
BBC History Magazine - 17th April 2019
Efforts to compare Brexit with previous apparently similar events fail to take into account historical trends which, over centuries, have taken Britain on a very different path to the nations of the Continent.
Since we broke away from political and religious European domination the emigration of large numbers of our people to other parts of the world, together with the export of our ideas and culture, have led to the creation both of the Anglosphere, and the now rapidly developing Commonwealth. We have outgrown the limits of Europe, and look across the oceans, not the Channel.
Joining the EU was an aberration, and one which was bound to end in a divorce. If those who want rule from Brussels succeed in temporarily blocking exit the result will only be a much more acrimonious breach with the Continent in the not too distant future.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 29th March 2019
Robert Mayall may be correct in that the betrayal of our democracy and country by the political class will provoke extra-parliamentary protest, even violence, but such actions will make no difference. Britain in 2019 is not the France of 1789, or the Russia of 1917 and, while their material position remains tolerable, the average person will not go to the barricades in defence of intangible issues such as accountability and democracy.
Those of us who have fought the cause of British independence for decades always knew that the only way to win was to replace the careerists in the Commons with MPs who really believed in democracy. Unfortunately in general elections the voters always return to their tribal loyalties. The leaders, and many supporters, of the Conservatives put party before country, while Labour has long ago abandoned its working class roots, and is now dominated by middle class professionals, who care nothing for the travails of the ordinary people, who are suffering from the effects of the former's love affair with the EU.
Eventually the EU will implode, destroyed by the collapse of the Euro, or the reaction of those member states who possess a greater pride in their country than has been shown by our useless politicians. For us now the future is to be a vassal state, and to have lost the respect of the world which our predecessors earned by standing up to tyranny. I hope that one day those responsible will be held accountable.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 22nd March 2019
The events of this week have confirmed what many of us knew to be true for decades. The political establishment has nothing but contempt for the views of the electorate and now, by their blatant self serving actions, the House of Commons has all but destroyed democracy in this country.
The parliamentarians, largely drawn from the same social class, with a majority attending the same two elite universities, worship at the altar of what has become the secular religion of the EU, and they have successfully prevented this country regaining its independence in order to satisfy their fellow arrogant colleagues in Brussels, and to ensure that they will continue to ride the EU gravy train, unhindered by any consideration of what is best for the people they claim to represent. For what they have done they will be remembered as among the greatest villains in our long island history.
Those parliamentarians who oppose Brexit love to quote Edmund Burke to justify their claim that, as representatives, not delegates, they have the right to oppose the clearly expressed desires of their constituents. However Burke did not conceive of a situation where elected MPs would owe their allegiance to a foreign entity, not to their own country, so his strictures are not relevant. If manifesto promises are not to be taken seriously why do we pretend that they are the basis on which people should vote.
The EU is set to move further and further to the right, so that authoritarian, racist rule will become the future within its bounds. Many of those who today oppose Brexit, thinking themselves so morally superior to those who wish to honour the result of the referendum, will live to regret that they have tied this country to such a despicable organisation.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 8th March 2019
The arrogance displayed by Steve Barrass is breathtaking, as he demands that the wishes of over seventeen million British voters should be ignored because he claims the EU referendum was deeply flawed, something which is plainly untrue. The reality is that the electorate have finally seen through the deceit practised by the political class over decades in its pretence that the European project was merely a trade agreement, and have decided that they want no part of the authoritarian single state which is its ultimate aim.
Very many people who had never voted before who felt impelled to support the Leave campaign, and, particularly in working class areas, there were queues of ordinary people determined to show their desire for Britain to be once again an independent nation.
If those such as Mr Barrass have their way then trust in democracy will be totally undermined, with consequences which hardly bear thinking about.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 15th February 2019
Although we are well aware that professional politicians are trained to place expediency before honesty I do really wonder how the MPs now working so assiduously to overturn Brexit can justify their actions to themselves. They put me in mind of Peter Sarstedt's lyrics "But where do you go to my lovely, When you're alone in your bed?, Won't you tell me the thoughts that surround you?, I want to look inside your head".
Most are far from lovely but they must know in their hearts that an overwhelming vote in Parliament promised the result of the referendum would be honoured, that the candidates for the Conservative and Labour parties at the 2017 General Election stood on a manifesto which explicitly promised to implement Brexit, and that the date for Article 50 was again passed by a large majority in the Commons. Yet now here they are blatantly reneging on these undertakings, and trying to justify doing so with specious arguments we all know are false.
If we could look inside their heads it would be instructive to know whether they are indulging in Orwellian doublethink, having convinced themselves that they are not breaking solemn promises, or whether they are so arrogant that they will lie and put their own self interest ahead of the will of the people.
In either case is it any surprise that our democracy is in great peril for, as the proverb attributed to Erasmus says "A fish rots from the head down". Although in reality dead fish do not do so, there is no doubt that our so called leaders are corrupting the body politic by their duplicitous behaviour. They should be ashamed of themselves.
Mature Times - 1st February 2019
The concerns expressed by the editor regarding a No Deal Brexit are understandable, but in reality are no more than tales told to frighten children, as the British people should consider just what they will have lost by the refusal of the Remainers to allow a No Deal.
The 39 billion pounds promised to the EU would not need paying, thus providing extra money for the NHS, and making funds available to assist those areas which have suffered from the effects of EU membership, while, under WTO rules, any tariffs charged on UK exports to the EU would be less than half the UK's net contribution to the EU budget. We would be free to immediately make trade deals with countries around the world, including joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership, while being able to enter a Canada plus arrangement with the EU. There would be no requirement for a transitional period, nor any question of a backstop relating to Northern Ireland. We would once more be in absolute control of our affairs, ensuring that we could take any steps we wish to protect our borders, while our legal system would be free of interference by the European Court of Justice, and our elected representatives, not Brussels bureaucrats would determine our laws.
The ludicrous warnings of disastrous consequences of No Deal would be shown to be no more than a series of Aunt Sallys, set up by hysterical Remainers, with no basis in fact, as, for instance, it is already clear that our planes could still fly to and fro from the EU, UK car makers have approval to sell in the EU, the Mayor of Calais has made clear that no obstacles will be placed in the way of trade, and threats of food shortages are complete nonsense.
We would lose all these benefits, merely in order that the politicians might continue to ride the EU gravy train. For the sake of our future we should demand that these people put the welfare of the people ahead of their own narrow interests.
As far as uncertainty is concerned one should remember that certainty can only be found in the graveyard. This country did not become great by being afraid to stride into the future because of a lack of belief in the abilities of the British people to meet challenges and overcome them.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 1st February 2019
Although it would no doubt be treated with contempt by the Remainers I have just been reading Douglas Bader's account of the Battle of Britain. Apart from the obvious courage of the participants what comes across most strongly is the belief in our country, and of the unconquerable spirit of the British people, who never doubted that, however dark things seemed, we would prevail.
What a contrast to the attitude of today's chattering classes. We have obscenely overpaid CEOs who have no confidence that British workers can match anyone found abroad, preferring to treat the people with contempt, clearly anxious to use lowly paid foreign workers, rather than investing in training at home, in order that there might be more funds available to pay their annual inflated bonuses. Worse are the pusillanimous politicians, who are desperate to hide behind the bureaucrats of the EU, instead of taking the responsibility of governing this country, while ensuring that the potentially enhanced career structure within the institutions of that organisation remains available to them, regardless of the wishes of their constituents.
These people have no belief in Britain, put their love of money before anything else, are betraying our democracy and destroying the country which Bader and his comrades saved. They are beneath contempt.
Kent Messenger - 24th January 2019
As the efforts by Remainers to reverse the result of the EU referendum reach an hysterical crescendo we are being told that the only solution to the crisis is to rerun the vote so that 'the people will break the deadlock'. This is such a transparent effort to override the already expressed will of the people that no sensible person would support it for a moment but, as the establishment is clearly determined to use any means to get its way, I challenge the supporters of a second vote to answer the following questions.
Exactly what question do they want to put to a vote? It is obvious that they would not countenance a direct repeat of the 2016 referendum, as they know that they would lose again, so they are seeking either to put forward three options, one for Remain, one for a so called negotiated settlement and one for a No Deal, thus ensuring that the Leave vote is split and the pro EU minority win, or they would offer a choice between Mrs May's abject deal or Leave, thus giving the voters a choice between Tweedledum and Tweedledee, effectively keeping the UK subservient to Brussels.
Secondly, should there, against the odds, be a fair question, and they lost, would they then accept the result and stop trying to ignore the people, or would they come up with a different scheme to give final victory to the losers in the 2016 vote?
Given their contempt for the electorate I think we know just what answers the Remainers would give, but have any of them the courage to admit it? Talk of letting the people decide is just a smokescreen to obscure the fact that this is all a deliberate attempt to preserve the status quo, whatever the people may wish to the contrary.
Kent Messenger - 17th January 2019
As it now seems certain that the political establishment will succeed in effectively reversing the result of the EU referendum perhaps the British people should consider just what they will have lost by the refusal of the Remainers to allow a No Deal.
The 39 billion pounds promised to the EU would not need paying, thus providing extra money for the NHS, and making funds available to assist those areas which have suffered from the effects of EU membership, while, under WTO rules, any tariffs charged on UK exports to the EU would be less than half the UK's net contribution to the EU budget. We would be free to immediately make trade deals with countries around the world, including joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership, while being able to enter a Canada plus arrangement with the EU. There would be no requirement for a transitional period, nor any question of a backstop relating to Northern Ireland. We would once more be in absolute control of our affairs, ensuring that we could take any steps we wish to protect our borders, while our legal system would be free of interference by the European Court of Justice, and our elected representatives, not Brussels bureaucrats would determine our laws.
The ludicrous warnings of disastrous consequences of No Deal would be shown to be no more than a series of Aunt Sallys, set up by hysterical Remainers, with no basis in fact, as, for instance, it is already clear that our planes could still fly to and fro from the EU, UK car makers have approval to sell in the EU, the Mayor of Calais has made clear that no obstacles will be placed in the way of trade, and threats of food shortages are complete nonsense.
We would lose all these benefits, merely in order that the politicians might continue to ride the EU gravy train. For the sake of our future we should demand that these people put the welfare of the people ahead of their own narrow interests.
Kent Messenger - 10th January 2019
The vote this month on Mrs May's so called deal will be the most important parliamentary decision in decades, as it will determine whether or not this country is once again to be an independent, sovereign nation. The proposals are a total betrayal of our democracy, for, if passed, future Westminster parliaments will more govern this country than do the committee of the local tennis club. Where we once were able to throw out those who ruled, if we found them wanting, we would face a future in which our lives would be controlled and directed by the faceless bureaucrats of Brussels, who cannot be removed by any democratic means.
This nauseating sell out would betray all those who fought and died over centuries to create our democracy. One can only imagine what the heroes of the past like Drake, Nelson, Wellington and Cromwell would say about their pathetic successors. We would lose all respect from others as they saw the nation which defied Phillip II, Napoleon, the Kaiser and Hitler tamely submit to threats from arrogant bureaucrats, and we would be humiliated in front of those who once saw Britain as one of most resolute defenders of freedom and democracy, as we proved too afraid of the overpaid dictators of Brussels to stand up for ourselves, even while under no military threat.
Our political class cannot see beyond the chance to one day be elected to that meaningless talking shop, the European parliament, where corruption reigns, and all one needs to do to reap vast salaries is to toe the federalist line. Even better they might get the opportunity to be appointed a European Commissioner, where they can lord it over the common plebs without fear of being turfed out in a democratic election. These people are beneath contempt yet we would be obliged to knuckle under to them and their allies in the EU, although it would really be the latter who will call the tune. While those Remainers who benefit from kneeling to Brussels would be celebrating, those who have supported them would eventually experience the full horror of living in a country where the ballot box no longer has any meaning, and they are unable to change, or even influence, those who rule.
The decision in June 2016 was clear and only a No Deal Brexit will honour that choice.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 4th January 2019
Your correspondent Paul Bailey describes those who support Brexit as being on the far right of the Tory party, thus illustrating that those supporters of the EU who believe themselves to be on the left of politics clearly do not know anything about the havoc membership has wreaked upon the UK's industry, and the livelihoods of the working class.
The EU pays to decimate our fishing industry, and for farmers not to produce food, while it has consistently used grants, largely paid for by funding from this country, to encourage manufacturing companies to transfer operations from Britain to other parts of Europe, actually declaring the intention to be to provide jobs for workers in the recipient nations, while ignoring those lost in the UK. The British government has connived at this betrayal by, for example, placing orders for military equipment in Spain, using Swedish steel, caring nothing for our workers thus thrown out of jobs, or indeed the security of the nation..
The bosses of large companies do not only benefit from these payments from Brussels to undermine their own country, they also demand the right to undercut the wages of British workers by importing people from parts of the EU where employment standards are significantly lower. No wonder the CBI, Institute of Directors etc. support continued membership. Less money for workers, more bonuses for the company executives.
Supposed left-wingers who wish to remain in the EU are the spiritual heirs of Lenin's "Useful Idiots" as no one who is concerned about the rights and living standards of the British working class should support continued membership, as it only benefits the selfish, metropolitan political and bureaucratic elite, their friends in the City of London, and in the boardrooms of multinationals.
Remainers are claiming that a No Deal Brexit will be a disaster for this country, but in reality the opposite is true. To leave under WTO rules would mean an immediate exit, with no transitional period, and no 39 billion pounds to be paid to Brussels, money that can be far better spent on the NHS, and on alleviating the plight of those working class areas impoverished by the malign effects of EU membership upon their domestic industries. It would return democratic control of this country to our own elected representatives, end the domination of the European Court of Justice over our laws, enable us to conduct free trade with the nearly 200 nations which lie outside the EU, restore our fishing grounds, and save significant amounts on our food bills.
We would say goodbye to the Customs Union, and the Single Market, which are no more than protectionist devices to protect the industries of France and Germany, and decide for ourselves what level of immigration we are prepared to accept.
No Deal is the path we must follow, if we wish to prosper as an independent, sovereign state in a world where the EU is nothing more than a shrinking, and ultimately doomed, backwater. It would be the best Christmas present this country has had for many a day, and rather than listen to the doomsayers of the Remain camp, we should look optimistically towards what Churchill described as the broad, sunlit uplands now within our grasp.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 21st December 2018
Events in Parliament this week have brought into sharp focus the fundamental flaw in our democratic system, a flaw which has been growing for decades, but which is now set fair to destroy democracy in this country.
For many years, following universal suffrage, one could be sure that, not all, but a majority of MPs, actually believed in a political philosophy, and sought to better the lot of the people by their actions. However the vast majority are now no more than careerists, whose prime concern is personal advancement, whatever damage might be done to the nation.
The people wish to regain independence from the EU, but the bulk of the political class see the latter as a means of enhancing their career opportunities, whether as MEPs, or as obscenely well paid apparatchiks in the Brussels bureaucratic machine. They will, with a few honourable exceptions, therefore never support Brexit, anymore than turkeys would vote for Christmas.
The only solution is to adopt the system used successfully in Switzerland, where the people determine policy on major issues by referenda. As a regular visitor to that prosperous, and stable, nation I know that their political class hate the situation, but are unable to enforce their wishes upon a sensible electorate.
If things continue unchanged in the UK then we shall face perpetual rule by an immovable, selfish elite, whose only principle is 'me first'.
Kent Messenger - 20th December 2018
Your correspondent Don Bates is mistaken in believing that no political party stands for a forthright exit from the EU, as there are several small parties who do, and one large one, namely UKIP. It is generally accepted that it was only the fear of the latter that caused Cameron to grant the referendum in the first place, and the party's poor performance in the subsequent general election is attributable to the fact that the Conservative and Labour party lied in their manifestos, saying that they would honour the result of the referendum, while clearly having no real intention of so doing.
As your other correspondent David Savory makes clear, the underlying problem is that our system of representative government has been undermined by the growth of the professional political class, whose interests are personal, and not based on principle. This situation has been developing over many decades, but has now reached the point where it is destroying our democracy. The only way out is those who place country, and the people, above party, and above self interest, to be elected, and this will not happen if the electorate continue to vote on historical tribal lines.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 14th December 2018
Not content with negating the result of the EU referendum, thanks to the pusillanimity of the Tory leadership, who have reverted to their default posture of appeasers, the supporters of the EU have produced a new version of Project Fear, namely Project Hysteria. Those creatures of the establishment, the Treasury and the Bank of England, have produced predictions about the effects of following the will of the people which would be laughable, were they not so malevolent, and the possible effect so malign.
Those prepared to give credence to this nonsense should remember that the very same people forecast disaster if we did not join the ERM, when doing so proved to be the real calamity, cried that we must join the Euro or face economic Armageddon, when in fact the peoples of Southern Europe can testify as to what a complete catastrophe it has been, and predicted that a vote to leave in 2016 would precipitate the end of the world as we know it, when the opposite has proved to be true.
Clearly the hysterics of the Remain camp have never heard of the saying that insanity consists of repeating the same mistakes, and expecting different results.
Kent Messenger - 13th December 2018
I do not believe that the scale of the political crisis which has arisen over Brexit has yet been truly appreciated by the general public.
In the past, when we have been threatened by war, the country was, albeit with a few dissenting voices, united and determined to win. However the current situation is similar to the Reformation, when state power versus that of the Church was the central issue, and of the Civil War, when the rights of the monarchy against those of Parliament were the primary concern.
At those times the country was split in a way that could not be resolved by simple discussion, as the soul of the nation was at stake. Now we face a situation where the majority of the people wish to put an end to rule by a foreign power, yet a substantial minority desire such a situation to continue. Do the latter, who look likely to succeed in overturning the largest democratic vote in our history, really think that things can then just go on as before?
Unless the will of the people is honoured then democracy in this country is in great peril, and the resolution of the matter may lie in a comparable upheaval to that of the other great historical divisions named above.
Kent Messenger - 6th December 2018
In an interview on Radio 4 this Sunday Ian Hislop, the editor of Private Eye claimed that matters of great import were being ignored while the nation argued over what were no more than trade issues. If he believes this then it clearly shows how out of touch with reality the smug members of the chattering classes are with the real reasons for the result of the EU referendum. The vote to leave was a cry of anguish from the British working class, who have seen their interests ignored in favour of appeasing the European elites, the fishermen whose industry had been decimated thanks to Edward Heath sacrificing it to gain entry to the EEC, and the despair of all democrats who see the world's oldest democracy becoming no more than a country governed by immovable, authoritarian bureaucrats.
For many years I was a subscriber to Private Eye, as I foolishly believed that it was on the side of the people against the establishment, and am aware that it consistently ridiculed, and criticised the EU. However, the moment the result of the referendum was declared it changed sides, and began to treat those who voted Leave as some sort of combination of Colonel Blimp and Alf Garnett.
Clearly its critics were right all along, and the publication is effectively a product of adolescent undergraduates, who take the contrary view for no more reason than it is contrary. As Clement Attlee advised, ignore intellectuals, they are always wrong.
Sunday Telegraph - 25th November 2018
The establishment has won. An unholy alliance of self interested bankers, big businessmen, bureaucrats and politicians has succeeded in treating the will of the people with utter contempt, and has discarded the result of the EU referendum, thus destroying both the bright future we might have had as a truly global nation, and indeed our democracy itself.
Dr Goebbels himself would have been proud of the lies and propaganda produced by the Remain side, who have missed no opportunity to falsify facts, and attack those wishing to leave the EU as morons, xenophobes or racists, completely ignoring the rational arguments they put forward.
While the Remainers who benefit from staying under the thumb of Brussels will be celebrating, those who have supported them will eventually experience the full horror of living in a country where the ballot box no longer has any meaning, and they are unable to change, or even influence, those who rule. However they will have made their bed, and must lie in it. Unfortunately so must the rest of us.
What a way for one of the greatest nations ever to have existed to leave the stage. The last two lines of T S Eliot's poem 'The Hollow Men', although speaking of the end of the world, can now apply to Britain "This is the way the world ends, Not with a bang but a whimper".
Kent and Sussex Courier - 23rd November 2018
If the government's Brexit deal is implemented it will be a total betrayal of our democracy, for future Westminster parliaments will no more govern this country than do the committee of the local tennis club, and it betrays all those who fought and died over centuries to create that democracy. The deaths of the martyrs of Peterloo, the efforts of the reformers of the nineteenth century, the trade unionists of Tolpuddle, and the suffragettes who strived for votes for women will all have been in vain, while those who fell to preserve freedom in two World Wars would have regarded this foul agreement as negating all for which they sacrificed their lives.
The anguish of the British working class, particularly in the North, will be ignored, as the politicians continue to ride the gravy train, and the industrial wastelands continue to decline.
We shall lose all respect from others as they see the nation which defied Phillip II, Napoleon , the Kaiser and Hitler tamely surrender to threats from arrogant bureaucrats. We shall all be humiliated in front of those who once saw Britain as one of most resolute defenders of freedom and democracy.
This betrayal will stand alongside Munich as one of the greatest in our history. Its terms bear comparison with those forced on Russia by Germany at Brest-Litovsk in 1917, or those the latter imposed on France in 1940 in the infamous railway carriage at Compiegne. Yet this will be not be as the result of military defeat, but of the treacherous cowardice of our own political class.
We may survive physically but it will be without honour in the world.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 16th November 2018
During the EU referendum campaign those supporting leaving were ridiculed for suggesting that the next step on the agenda would be a European Army. Now however we have the President of the French Republic actually calling for such a development, and not content with that Mr Macron names the USA as a possible opponent. Perhaps he should remember that France would not be a free country were it not for American soldiers led by great generals such as Eisenhower, Bradley and Patton, fighting alongside Monty and his British and Canadian armies, which swept out from Normandy to drive the Germans back to the Rhine and beyond.
The European Parliament's 'Brexit Coordinator' and senior MEP, Guy Verhofstadt, has gone one step further however, demanding that existing defences forces across Europe are 'integrated' into a European Army. Are we really to contemplate British soldiers being sent to fight their American cousins at the behest of Brussels and Berlin?
What this shows is that, while the 'Project Fear' of the Remainers has proved to be based on nonsensical lies, the very real fears of those seeking to restore British independence were nothing but the truth. The consequences of failing to implement Brexit would be dire indeed, but the pro EU campaigners are impervious to reason. To update the sheep in Animal Farm their mantra is "EU good, UK bad".
Kent Messenger - 8th November 2018
Clearly your correspondents Mike Thompson and Steve Russell regard the expression of any opinion opposed to theirs as ranting, while they no doubt are nothing but objective. The former needs a history lesson if he thinks that Germany has been a close friend of the UK for more than seventy years, as German reunification did not take place until 1990, and one could hardly have regarded the GDR as anything but a determined enemy. He should also reflect that it is now generally agreed that Germany is very much the dominant power within the EU, and that the latter is busy creating its own armed forces, so any future military action would inevitably be at the behest of Berlin. The treatment meted out recently to the people of Greece by an EU under the direction of Germany should be a warning.
As far as the second EU referendum that these two gentleman support, under the oxymoronic name of "A People's Vote", better known as "A Loser's Vote" is concerned, just who do they think was voting in June 2016, cats?
Mr Russell should be aware that the only reason Switzerland has held numerous referenda on joining the EU is that their politicians are desperate to do so, in order that they might join their fellow political elites on the gravy train, but the Swiss people are too sensible to agree. One may be sure that if the latter were ever foolish enough to vote 'Yes' then that would be the last referendum on the subject that was permitted.
Finally I am not, as Mr Russell appears to think, desperate, as, after enduring nearly fifty years of lies from the elite, the aim of regaining our status as a sovereign, independent nation is now within our grasp.
Daily Express - 6th November 2018
Perhaps those supporting a so called "People's Vote" would like to answer one simple question. Who do they think voted in June 2016 - puffins?"
Kent Messenger - 1st November 2018
Might I suggest that you balance your series "The Brexit Risk Register" with one called "The Brexit Opportunity Register", which can highlight the many positive aspects of the UK leaving the EU, and returning to the path we should never have left, of being a global nation, looking out across the oceans, not just across the Channel. True, restoring the UK to the status of a self governing sovereign nation, when it has progressed so far down the road of becoming just part of a single European state, was never going to be absolutely straightforward but, as Churchill said when planning D Day, "Don't argue about difficulties. The difficulties will argue for themselves . . .". As then the task may be hard, but the result will be worthwhile.
The details of which rope must be pulled, or what ballast must be cast over the side, in order to change the direction of the Ship of State, are secondary matters. The British people have decided that they want their future to be as citizens of a free independent nation, not of a subject province of a United States of Europe, and that decision must be honoured.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 26th October 2018
Apart from when we were under threat during wartime our democracy has never been in more peril than it is now. I, and many others have spent decades campaigning, legally and peacefully, for the UK to leave the malign and undemocratic EU and, after enduring many years of being treated with scorn, finally won in June 2016. Now however Theresa May and her fellow quislings, negotiating from their knees, are prepared to offer their beloved EU many more billions of pounds, so that they can effectively keep the UK under the thumb of Brussels. Almost exactly eighty years ago the British establishment appeased continental bullies and, but for Churchill, would have cost us our democracy and freedom. Have they learned nothing from history?
In his history of the Battle of Britain Douglas Bader tells of how, in June 1940, in the Mess of his fighter squadron, the surrender of France was announced, and his Commanding Officer said Thank God, now we are on our own. Although that was not strictly true, as then we had the Empire, and now we have the Commonwealth, it summoned up the true spirit of the British people.
We do not now, and we never have had, the need for bureaucrats in Brussels to direct our affairs. If the Remainers, with their blinkered view of the realities of the EU, succeed in humiliating the British people in front of the entire world, by overturning the largest democratic vote in our history, it will be the greatest betrayal in our history.
Kent Messenger - 25th October 2018
At a time when the NHS clearly needs more funding, and when senior citizens are being threatened with the withdrawal of their free TV licences to save money for the Vichy minded BBC, Theresa May and her fellow quislings, negotiating from their knees, are prepared to offer their beloved EU many more billions of pounds, so that they can effectively keep the UK under the thumb of Brussels. Almost exactly eighty years ago the British establishment appeased continental bullies and, but for Churchill, would have cost us our democracy and freedom. Have they learned nothing from history?
The issue of the Irish border is a red herring, introduced by the EU as a means of attempting to pressurise the UK into granting concessions. I cross the border between the EU and Switzerland at least four times every year without problems, and there is no reason that this cannot be the case between Northern Ireland and Eire after Brexit, while we should look upon threats from Donald Tusk about a No Deal Brexit in the same light as Brer Rabbit regarded being thrown into the briar patch.
If the Remainers, with their blinkered view of the realities of the EU, succeed in humiliating the British people in front of the entire world, by overturning the largest democratic vote in our history, then I have one message for them. When the inevitable collapse of the Euro plunges our economy into disaster, when they find that the powers of the elected Westminster parliament have been fully transferred to appointed bureaucrats in Brussels, and when they see their sons and daughters sent to fight in Germany's wars, they should remember that they will only have themselves to blame.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 12th October 2018
Your correspondent John A Bailey advocates a general election to decide Brexit, rather than honouring the decision taken by the people in June 2016, although it is obvious that the combination of other issues covered by an election, plus the rigidity of the electoral system, would guarantee that the vast majority of sitting pro EU MPs would be returned. His argument might have some force were the latter akin to Plato's philosopher Kings, capable of making unbiased judgements in the common interest, but although some do put principle first, most see membership of the EU as a means of providing them with an enhanced career structure, a chance to strut their little hour upon a wider stage, and as a means of evading responsibility by transferring effective decision making from Westminster to Brussels. Therefore one can be sure that the self interest of MPs would take precedence over considerations of what is best for the country, and a small group of politicians should not be allowed to override the clearly expressed wish of a majority of the British people.
John Champneys once again refers to the 2016 referendum as advisory, ignoring the fact that the parliamentarians, when they thought that Remain would win, agreed that the result would be binding. His questions as to trade are both wrong and irrelevant, as the people decided on the basis of democracy, and the right to see the UK governed by our own elected representatives, who can be voted out of office, not immovable bureaucrats, who cannot.
It is equally irrelevant that we are an offshore island, as we are also a truly global nation, the centre of the Commonwealth, the fountainhead of the English speaking world, a permanent member of the UN security council, and, along with France, possess the most potent military forces in Europe, outside Russia. His comment regarding the world wars is an insult to those who died preserving our freedom and democracy from continental tyrants, as to hand control of this country to European apparatchiks would be the ultimate betrayal of their sacrifice.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 12th October 2018
Based on nothing more than assertion your correspondent David Molloy claims that the case for leaving the EU is based on fiction, and says that the idea that Brexiteers have the interests of ordinary people at heart is risible.
What would be truly laughable, were it no so disastrous, is the belief of Remainers that the EU is a benign, democratic organisation, intent on spreading peace, when in fact the opposite is true.
The architects of the EU, Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman had watched Hitler win power through the ballot box, and wrongly concluded that electorates were not to be trusted, ignoring the special circumstances obtaining in Germany at the time. They therefore put forward the concept of Europe as a single state, governed by supposedly objective bureaucrats, who could be trusted not to allow demagogs to ever again come to power. The ordinary people would be allowed the pretence that they retained democratic control, but in fact decisions would be taken by a select group of apparatchiks, appointed not elected.
It is not hard to see that this concept is the antithesis of the democracy which we in Britain have spent centuries building, and it is this realisation, perhaps more than any other factor, which led to the referendum result, as the British people knew instinctively that they did not wish to sacrifice their right to rule themselves in return for the mess of pottage offered by Brussels.
Now is our Carpe Diem moment. Should we not now seize the day, and become once more an independent and democratic nation, the ordinary people will see this as the greatest betrayal in our island history.
Kent Messenger - 11th October 2018
I very much agree with your correspondent David Savory's comments concerning the EU referendum.
However, as we enter the final countdown to Brexit I feel that many have lost sight of the wood for the trees, preferring instead to discuss lesser matters of trade and finance, while not considering the process in its proper historical context,
The architects of the EU, Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman had watched Hitler win power through the ballot box, and wrongly concluded that electorates were not to be trusted, ignoring the special circumstances obtaining in Germany at the time. They therefore put forward the concept of Europe as a single state, governed by supposedly objective bureaucrats, who could be trusted not to allow demagogs to ever again come to power. The ordinary people would be allowed the pretence that they retained democratic control, but in fact decisions would be taken by a select group of apparatchiks, appointed not elected.
That this model was doomed to fail is obvious to anyone who understands human nature, as the people designated to exercise control were not the ideals represented by Plato's philosopher Kings, who needed to possess both a love of knowledge, as well as intelligence, reliability, and a willingness to live a simple life, but instead corruptible bureaucrats, who would soon be seduced by a lack of democratic accountability into totally ignoring the interests of the people, if they conflicted with their own wishes. They would also soon become self perpetuating, with an oligarchical class becoming immovable, as happened in the USSR and elsewhere.
It is not hard to see that this concept is the antithesis of the democracy which we in Britain have spent centuries building, and it is this realisation, perhaps more than any other factor, which led to the referendum result, as the British people knew instinctively that they did not wish to sacrifice their right to rule themselves in return for the mess of pottage offered by Brussels.
Should we not now seize the moment, and become once more an independent and democratic nation, our descendants will see this as the greatest betrayal in our island history.
Kent Messenger - 27th September 2018
John Cobbett suggests that unproven expenses relating to Brexit could easily be avoided by the government stopping the entire process. The arrogance of this is breathtaking, as it would contemptuously brush aside the votes of the majority who voted to leave the EU, while his claim that there are no tangible upsides to leaving ignores the fact that the greatest of these would be to take back our democracy from the grip of unelected bureaucrats.
Your other correspondent Ray Duff laughably talks of reforming the EU from within when, as has been seen for decades, the latter will never fundamentally change, and intends to push on to its ultimate destination as a single state, run without regard to the wishes of its people. In addition not one of the measures he mentions is incapable of solution by our own government in Westminster, if that is what the electorate desire.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 14th September 2018
In his attack on me Adrian Ekins-Dukes states that the leaflet issued by the government in the run up to the 2016 referendum is even handed yet, having the document in front of me as I write, it should be obvious to any rational person reading it that it is nothing more than propaganda for the Remain side. Indeed the very first statement on the front page says "Why the Government believes that voting to remain in the European Union is the best decision for the UK". As far as accusing me of being paranoid concerning the Electoral Commission is concerned, I have previously pointed out on this letters page that a number of the senior Commissioners, including the Chairman, have made clear their absolute commitment to Remain.
Mr Ekins-Daukes claims that the warnings about food supplies etc. were merely precautions but again, no independent observer could view them as anything other than alarmist predictions intended to undermine Brexit, while to assert that Project Fear is exclusively a Leave weapon is risible, given that every projected disaster imagined by the Remain side before the referendum failed to materialise.
Mr Ekins-Dauke displays almost unbelievable arrogance in demanding that the decision backed by almost seventeen and a half million voters should be ignored. He, and his fellow Remainers, claim that they want what they call a People's Vote, which is what we actually had in 2016, but really they are attempting a transparent bid to rig a second referendum: ask the people to vote on staying in the EU, accept May's absurd Chequers agreement, or just leave, thus presenting two options which would split the Leave vote, ensuring that the Remain option would win. Perhaps one should consider the reality of what this would mean, should they succeed in such gerrymandering. A decision taken by the largest democratic vote in our history would have been ignored, and the clearly expressed will of the people treated with utter contempt. Do those who are attempting to do this have any idea what it would mean for the future of democracy in this country?
Mr Ekins-Dauke's letter confirms, if confirmation were needed, that Remainers are the sort of people who, if they were footballers, would pretend to be hurt to gain an advantage, if cricketers would refuse to walk when given out by the umpire, or if losing at cards would claim that they opponents had been cheating. In other words they lack a sense of fair play, and the capability to accept defeat in a democratic contest.
Catholic Times - 7th September 2018
While there is much to agree with in the article by Dr Joseph Bradley, nevertheless he is actually advocating pacifism, a philosophy which is not accepted by the Catholic church. Had the West taken his attitude in the 1930s then the twin evils of Nazism and Japanese fascism would have taken over the world, with the consequence that millions of innocent Jews, Slavs and anyone else they considered inferior, would have been murdered.
Unless Dr Bradley can guarantee that another such as Hitler will never arise, it would be madness to throw away our weapons.
Kent Messenger - 6th September 2018
You report that a survey by two groups who support continued rule of this country by bureaucrats in Brussels has found a swing towards Remain in Kent, but this it is hardly surprising given that the supposed result favours the views of those conducting the poll, and the continued nonsense being produced by supporters of Project Fear Two.
Have we in this country not yet accepted that opinion polls are about as accurate as Mystic Meg, given their constant failures to forecast the results of elections and, in particular, that of the EU referendum?
On the morning of the referendum David Cameron was assured by his most senior pollster that Remain would win by ten clear points, and we all know what happened. The only poll that matters is the one that, in June 2016, showed that the majority of the electorate wished the UK to leave the EU, and that is the course of action to be followed if our democracy is not to thrown into the dustbin of history.
Reader's Digest - 1st September 2018
While Lee Child is a talented author he clearly does not have the same expertise in the field of politics.
A constitutional monarchy is the best form of government, as it allows the head of state to be a unifying figure, standing above politics, yet merely by existing prevents divisive, and possibly authoritarian, politicians from achieving supreme power.
In addition Mr Child is somewhat naive about the BBC. Where it was once a national treasure it now presents a totally biased view on many issues, in particular, Brexit and global warming. It has become a mouthpiece for the metropolitan liberal elite and needs root and branch reform. It is damaging the country by its instinctive support for those who attempt to deprecate our nation.
Kent Messenger - 30th August 2018
John Cobbett returns to what has become a recurring theme with supporters of remaining in the EU, that there should be a second referendum, something which the more arrogant among them call A People's Vote, completely ignoring the fact that we had such a vote in June 2016. Of course it is transparently obvious that they are trying to rig such a referendum by suggesting that it be a three way choice: leave under the terms of the disgraceful Chequers fudge, leave with No Deal, or remain in the EU, thus splitting the Leave vote and ensuring that the Remainers win.
Perhaps one should consider the reality of what this would mean, should they succeed in such gerrymandering. A decision taken by the largest democratic vote in our history would have been ignored, and the clearly expressed will of the people treated with utter contempt. Do those who are attempting to do this have any idea what it would mean for the future of democracy in this country?
Daily Telegraph - 29th August 2018
Jake Berry is quite right in his comments regarding support for Brexit in the North.
Those who wish to see the UK continue to be subservient to Brussels are the London based liberal elite, and so called intelligentsia, supported by the BBC, all of whom have more in common with their counterparts in the EU than they do with their compatriots.
The EU referendum was won largely thanks to the working class vote of the North, for whom the selfish denizens of North London have nothing but contempt.
Kent Messenger - 23rd August 2018
I agree with the comments made by Anthony Lang, concerning the recent article by Boris Johnson about the wearing of the burka. However the extent to which the refusal of the losers in the EU referendum to accept a democratic decision is poisoning public debate is clearly evident in the absurd overreaction to the latter. Mr Johnson takes the liberal view that the excessive covering worn by Islamist women should not be banned, but he does so in his normal lighthearted manner. Many Muslim women, plus a significant number of their own Imans, feel that he did not go far enough, in that they believe the practice discussed is not a requirement of Islam, and indeed is a device to keep women in a subservient position, yet he is attacked for so called Islamophobia.
It is obvious that the supporters of the UK remaining under the control of the EU are using this totally specious accusation in an attempt to discredit one whom they believe to be the main architect of Brexit, while the Labour party is grateful for anything which will distract attention from the truly horrific rise of anti Semitism within their ranks.
The hard left share with the Islamists a complete lack of a sense of humour, and take offence even when none is intended. As a Catholic I remember the way in which the comedian Dave Allen used to mock the Catholic Church, how nuns have often been compared to penguins, and that the TV series Father Ted, while funny, was quite vicious at times in its lampooning of Catholic priests. However most of us are secure enough in our faith to recognize that these things are irrelevant to our beliefs.
The true scandal is that free speech in this country is under attack by those who cannot tolerate even the slightest deviation from their ideology, or their political convictions, so seek to silence those who dare to disagree with them. All who believe in the right to speak freely should support Mr Johnson.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 17th August 2018
As the hour of freedom from the EU approaches so supporters of Brussels, such as your correspondent Elizabeth Riminton-Drury, seek to deny the will of the people by making ridiculous assertions about the 2016 referendum.
The claim that the winning side should be ignored because of unsubstantiated, and denied, charges about minor financial irregularities would be risible, if it were not so serious. We know how the Remainers were given a free propaganda gift of nine million pounds when Cameron's government sent their pro EU leaflet to every home, while the resources made available to the Remain side from self interested businessmen dwarfed anything given to the Leave campaign.
When considering this issue we are told that the Electoral Commission rejects any case against the Europhiles, yet constantly reopens those concerning those from the Leave side. However we now know, as if it were any surprise, that this body is not unbiased, but is a creature of the liberal establishment.
Sir John Holmes, the chairman, since January 2017, said that he "regretted the result of the referendum" and complained about the "panoply of Eurosceptic nonsense about the EU" heard during the campaign, Professor David Howarth, a commissioner since October 2014, has publicly asked whether it was "morally acceptable" to "press on with invoking article 50", Lord Horam, again a commissioner since October 2014, and once a member of the SDP, said "it will make sense not to leave the EU" while Bridget Prentice a commissioner since May 2014, was justice minister under Tony Blair. Anyone who believes that a body of ten, with it being clear that at least four members strongly support Remain, is impartial, obviously also believes in the Easter Bunny and Father Christmas.
Ms Riminton-Drury raises the nonsense peddled by the new 'Project Fear' with talk of food shortages, and traffic chaos, none of which have the slightest reality outside the overheated imaginations of the Remainers.
Contrary to her assertion that the result should be ignored our democracy deserves, indeed demands, that the decision taken by the people should be honoured, if that democracy is to survive.
Kent Messenger - 16th August 2018
Your correspondent Terry Wright is attempting to perpetuate two myths concerning those of us who support leaving the EU. He describes us as Europhobes, implying that we are motivated by a hatred, or fear, of the Europeans, but it is not the latter whom we oppose, but the undemocratic, bureaucratic dictatorship centred in Brussels. He obviously does not realise that there are vast numbers of those living on the continent who share our detestation of the EU. Secondly he seems to believe it is the rich which support Brexit to the detriment of others, while in fact it is the working class who have suffered from membership of the EU, as is evidenced by the fact that the 2016 referendum was won by the Labour voters of the North, and that very many principled Labour politicians such as Gaitskill, Tony Benn, Michael Foot and Peter Shore were implacably opposed to the UK being a member.
John Corbett falsely claims that only a minority supported Brexit in 2016, arrogantly declares that they did not know what they voted for, and then wants a second referendum, when the first has not been implemented. Evidently he does not believe in honouring democratic decisions.
Your other correspondent David Savory, while clearly not a supporter of Remain, is deceived as to the intent of the Treaty of Rome. As those such as Enoch Powell and Tony Benn pointed out at the time of the 1975 referendum the Treaty makes clear that its ultimate aim is the creation of a United States of Europe. Unfortunately they were not listened to at the time, but now no one can be in any doubt that that is still the raison d'etre of the EU.
The only way to preserve the existence of our country as an independent nation, and to save our democracy is to make a clean break with the whole project.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 10th August 2018
Your correspondent Andrew Fry has the effrontery to claim that the shambles the government is making of Brexit is a reason to abandon the latter, when the real reason for the chaos is the determination of the Remainers to use every delaying tactic available to frustrate the wishes of the majority of the electorate that we leave the EU. If the political class had put democracy ahead of their own self interest we would already have left, and what is required is that the result of the referendum be fully honoured immediately.
As far as the idea that youngsters, the majority of whom who have not yet been obliged to take on the responsibilities of home, family etc. should be included in the vote, this is just a device by Remainers who think, perhaps incorrectly, that the young are more gullible, and will vote their way. It may come as a surprise to Mr Fry, but it is not only teenagers who have a future.
One wonders what those such as Mr Fry would do if he got his way and a second referendum was held, again lost by the Remainers. Best of five perhaps?
Catholic Times - 3rd August 2018
As the day of freedom for the UK from the grip of the EU approaches the supporters of our remaining subservient to Brussels, such as Christopher Graffius, are seeking to revive 'Project Fear' by claiming that leaving without a deal would be a disaster, something which is just not true.
In his latest article Mr Graffius describes Britain after Brexit as 'isolated', a ridiculous description when one considers that we would still be, inter alia, one of the five permanent members of the UN security council; the mother country of the Commonwealth, a truly global and developing organisation, unlike the economically declining EU; the fountainhead of the English language, and the Anglosphere; a member of the 'five eyes', which brings the UK, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand into the world's most complete and comprehensive intelligence alliance; the most important member of NATO after the USA. All this quite apart from having a worldwide cultural and political influence quite beyond the powers of the inward looking nations of continental Europe.
Mr Graffius also claims that Brexit affects the poorer members of society adversely, yet it is membership of the EU which has damaged the interests of the working class, something which the results of the EU referendum highlighted, as the Labour strongholds of the North and elsewhere voted by large majorities to leave, while the Labour Party, until the advent of 'New Labour' always knew this, as is evidenced by the anti EU position taken by, to list just a few, Attlee, Gaitskill, Tony Benn, Michael Foot, and indeed Jeremy Corbyn, prove.
Those who oppose Brexit are the spoilt and selfish members of the pseudo liberal elite, bureaucrats, bankers and big business. In reality a 'No deal' Brexit would be the best possible option, as we should then make a clean break and could ensure that the true interests of people were given the priority they deserve.
Catholic Times - 27th July 2018
Father Marsden's comments concerning Brexit show that he has no understanding of the reality of the European Union, nor of the reasons people oppose British association with it.
Far from being a benign organisation seeking to improve the lives of its citizens its raison d'etre is to create a single European state, to be run by an unelected elite, primarily for the advantage of the political and bureaucratic class, enabling bankers and big business to exploit the people without fear of being checked by any sort of democratic control.
Those of us who oppose it are not, as Farther Marsden avers 'ultra right capitalists', but rather democrats who consider it to be a nothing less than a capitalist club which will suppress the ordinary working person. If one looks at the voting patterns of the EU referendum it is clear that the most consistent and heartfelt opposition comes from the working class areas of the North, not the middle class enclaves of London. If it were not so then why would the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, an acknowledged left wing politician, have been an opponent of membership for his entire political career, and why would there be so many trade unionists disagreeing with their own leaders about supporting Brussels?
Kent Messenger - 26th July 2018
I have just returned from the USA where, contrary to the impression given by much of the British media, many Americans are very happy with President Trump, as he speaks in support of his country, and for its ordinary citizens.
However I returned to a Britain where the political elite is set on appeasing the arrogant rulers of the EU, and clearly intend to betray the electorate by implementing a Brexit in name only.
If this is allowed to stand then democracy is indeed dead in these islands.
Daily Express - 17th July 2018
Justin Greening is clearly trying to split the Leave vote with her proposals for a three way referendum.
Remainers should be told that the referendum result must be honoured, and any subsequent vote could only take place after we have been outside the EU for at least ten years. To repeat a vote before it has been implemented is a negation of democracy.
Kent Messenger - 21st June 2018
Your correspondent Mike Thompson describes my views on the EU as a tired mantra, but I like to think that, had I been politically active in the 1930s I would have, like Churchill, been consistently anti Nazi until the regime was destroyed, and not suddenly have decided that enough had been said before that point. In the same way the EU was, is, and always will be, an undemocratic bureaucratic dictatorship, and I will express my opposition to it until its final collapse, and relegation to the dustbin of history.
As far as the accusation by Mr Thompson that I reject the British values of democracy and free speech are concerned this is rich indeed from someone who clearly refuses to accept the decision taken by the largest ever democratic vote in our history. I do not deny that the European Movement has the right to state their opinions, but equally I have the right to point out that they are not merely talking nonsense, and ignoring reality, but are seeking to totally ignore the wishes of the majority of the British people.
Those such as Mr Thompson have a habit of referring to unsuccessful anti EU candidates as failed which is indeed risible, considering that, despite the support of the entire establishment, their side failed utterly in the EU referendum.
Finally he claims that nobody appears to understand what Brexit means so, as I do, let me spell it out for him simply. It was never about secondary matters, such as finance or trade. The crux of the matter is the desire of the British people to live in a country where they have the right to elect representatives to their own sovereign parliament to govern the country, and not to be forced to accept rule by unelected, and immoveable, bureaucrats in Brussels. That, and that alone, is the essence of Brexit.
Daily Mail - 20th June 2018
The government has confirmed that the financial advantages of leaving the EU will ensure that the NHS will receive an increase of even more than the original 350 million pounds per week claimed by the supporters of the Leave campaign.
Remainers owe an apology to the latter for continually questioning the promised Brexit dividend, but I am not holding my breath. Those in thrall to the EU would rather pay Brussels billions in membership fees than see the money spent on the health service.
BBC History Magazine - 1st July 2018
George Claeys is too kind in his assessment of Marx and Marxism. Those intellectuals seduced by the latter like to claim that it is based on science but, as the article admits, Marx claimed that the revolution would of necessity take place in countries with an industrial proletariat, when in fact it was the essentially undeveloped countries of Russia and China where it occurred. This basic flaw completely undermines the so called historical materialism of Marx, and justifies those such as Karl Popper describing Marxism as pseudo-scientific.
In reality Marxism is yet another of those all encompassing schemes emanating from the mainland European intellectual and political classes, such as Fascism, Nazism and forced political integration which attract support from elites but which prove to be a disaster for the ordinary people.
The kind of democratic socialism which emerged in the UK from the chapels and the unions, but which is despised by ideologues of the left, and which reached its apogee under Attlee, offers far more to humanity than the failed nostrums of Marx and his apologists.
Sunday Telegraph - 10th June 2018
I have read the columns by Christopher Booker for many years, agreeing with the vast majority of his comments on the EU and global warming, and I have also bought and admire his books on the same subject.
However, since we voted for freedom in June 2016 he has taken on the role of what we used to call 'Mary, Mary, quite contrary', in that he is now obsessed with staying in the EEA, and claims that we cannot actually leave the EU entirely.
What he, and other faint-hearts, do not realise is that this country needs only to stand firm to defeat the apparatchiks of Brussels. Let us make clear that we will pay them nothing, that any actions they take against us will be fully reciprocated, and that we will refuse co-operation on everything, including technology and security, if they treat us as adversaries.
Britain is not some supplicant third world republic seeking favours, but is the nation to which much of Europe owes their freedom. We need to show self respect and fortitude in facing down these arrogant bullies.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 8th June 2018
Alan Bullion, a dedicated supporter of the EU, would have us believe that a group of Remainers, asking questions in the street, in the only town in Kent which voted Remain, justifies overturning the result of the EU referendum in which seventeen and a half million people voted to leave, a clear majority.
Given the treatment Italy is receiving at the hands of the EU it is astonishing that anyone in this country can still believe that the UK should remain a member.
Despite the desire of the Italian people, as expressed at the ballot box, to put an end to rule from Brussels, the Italian president Sergio Mattarella, an unelected place man, is obeying the EU and Berlin in overriding the wishes of the electorate in order, as he puts it, to prevent investors being upset. The equivalent in this country would be to deny Jeremy Corbyn the premiership, should he win an election, on the grounds that it would upset City financiers. The mindset of Brussels can be seen from the comments by Gunter Oettinger, the German EU commissioner for budget and HR, who said "The markets will teach the Italians to vote for the right thing", a blatant anti democratic statement illustrating the contempt with which the EU holds the wishes of the people.
The architects and rulers of the EU operate within the same paradigm as Lenin and his Bolshevik party, where practical realities were not allowed to change the course they had set, no matter how many people had to suffer in order for the project to continue. The argument that the ends justifies the means led to the horrors of the Stalinist purges, and now the determination of the apparatchiks of Brussels to create a single European state is sacrificing the people of Greece, Italy and other Southern European states on the altar of the Euro and will, if unchecked destroy democracy itself.
Brexit is our means of escaping this fate and we should grasp it with both hands. Those such as Alan Bullion long ago nailed their colours to the mast of a sinking ship, and will no doubt still be singing its praises as it disappears beneath the waves.
Kent Messenger - 7th June 2018
Last Saturday my wife and I spent a sunny day in the delightful town of Whitstable, but our pleasure was somewhat lessened by encountering a stall run by the European Movement, proffering leaflets demanding a second referendum on Brexit. Quite apart from the obvious fact that result of the first referendum has not been implemented, and must not be ignored, it amazes me the extent to which people can delude themselves in the face of reality, as, given the treatment Italy is receiving at the hands of the EU, it is astonishing that anyone in this country can still believe that the UK should remain a member.
Despite the desire of the Italian people, as expressed at the ballot box, to put an end to rule from Brussels, the mindset of the rulers of the EU can be seen from the comments by Gunter Oettinger, the German EU commissioner for budget and HR, who said "The markets will teach the Italians to vote for the right thing", a blatant anti democratic statement illustrating the contempt with which the EU holds the wishes of the people.
The apparatchiks of Brussels are using the argument that the ends justifies the means as they seek to create a single European state, and so are sacrificing the people of Greece, Italy and other Southern European states on the altar of the Euro and will, if unchecked destroy democracy itself.
The European Movement should devote their energies to making Brexit a success, not undermining it. Unfortunately they long ago nailed their colours to the mast of a sinking ship, and refuse to recognize that it will soon disappear beneath the waves. Brexit is our means of escaping this fate and we should grasp it with both hands.
Mature Times - 1st June 2018
You ask for opinions regarding the Commonwealth. Now that we have thankfully decided to leave the European Union it is time we turned our attention to making the most of our strengths, and none is more important than our relations with the Commonwealth. The latter is on track to become a truly major economic force in the next few decades, as, for example, India is expected to become the largest country by population by the middle of the century, and with the potential to rival China in the economic sphere.
For historical reasons we have much more in common with the members of the Commonwealth than we ever did with the continental Europeans, and not only because some of the most important, such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand share our language. They, and many others, also have legal systems derived from ours, and their outlook on a great number of issues is similar to that of the UK. We have large numbers of citizens who have made their home here from Commonwealth nations, and perhaps we might even soon have a Prime Minister from one of these minorities, such as Priti Patel, whose patriotism and belief in this country outshines that of many British politicians.
If we develop these growing markets, and also work closely with our cousins in the USA, the future can indeed be bright for us as a nation orientated globally, not confined to the shrinking economic bloc of the EU.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 1st June 2018
In his defence of the attempts by the House of Lords to block Brexit Richard Landolt illustrates why those such as himself are so in love with the European Union, as the two bodies share identical characteristics. A group of unelected elitists are seeking to entrench rule of the UK by an organisation which is controlled by precisely the same sort of people, arrogantly ignoring the wishes of the electorate as they try to retain power in their own selfish interests.
Probably for the first time in its history the Lords is nothing more than a depositary for failed members of the so called liberal establishment, where the Liberal Democrats, a party which commands almost no support in the country, nevertheless controls hundreds of votes, which they have no hesitation in casting in opposition to the clearly expressed will of the people, as evidenced in the EU referendum.
Mr Landolt claims that this is how democracy works are nonsense, as the prejudices of a few hundred unelected, and apparently immovable, thwarted former politicians and ex bureaucrats must not be allowed to override a decision taken by the largest democratic vote ever seen in this country, if democracy is to have any meaning.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 25th May 2018
My wife and I attended the special cinema screening of the 75th Anniversary celebration of the Dam Busters raid and, although I have seen the film many times before, I still found it inspiring. To see young men from nations such as New Zealand, Australia, Canada, South Africa and the USA joining their British comrades in putting patriotism and duty before their personal safety, as they struck a major blow at a continental tyrant was truly exhilarating, and the manner in which British ingenuity triumphed, overcoming the usual bureaucratic inertia of the Civil Service with the support of a great leader in Downing Street, should be a lesson to us now.
The end of the film was greeted with applause in the cinema, which says much about the true feelings of the British people now about the oft derided values which so shaped, and saved us, in the 1940s.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 18th May 2018
Although a strong believer in democracy, and aware of the unelected nature of the House of Lords, I have in the past supported its existence, primarily as a body for revising legislation which an inept Commons has produced, or as a means of providing advice to governments. However in recent years the Lords, rather than consisting of senior and experienced figures, has become a depositary for party hacks whose only reason for inclusion has been the convenience of the party leaders.
As a consequence we now have a Lords where the liberal elite, particularly those from the Liberal Democrat party, enjoy a gross over representation, and they are using that fact to undermine the democratic decision taken by the public over Brexit. While it is sensible to have a second chamber, which can perform the sort of duties mentioned above, it is time that the current House of Lords was reformed in order that politicians whose time has gone cannot frustrate the wishes of the people as they are currently trying to do.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 11th May 2018
Unsurprisingly, despite the result of the EU referendum, Richard Underhill continues to sing the same old refrains of the Remainers. First he states that a the judgement of MPs should be paramount, yet this ignores the fact that the majority of those in the Commons will put their self interest, in preserving their career advancement via the EU, ahead of those of the nation. Now he implies that those who voted to leave did so to rid themselves of David Cameron, a new, and completely risible accusation, as it is rule by Brussels to which the people object, not the fortunes of transitory political figures.
His arrogant assertion that not all British citizens were allowed to vote because the voting age remains at 18 ignores the fact that children younger than that do not have sufficient life experience to make this sort of decision. For the most part they have not had to find work, buy a house, seek major medical attention, or bring up children of their own. I take it that, should the Remainers lose another referendum in which such youngsters did vote, those such as Mr Underhill would then demand that the voting age be lowered to 10.
The reality is that, should the Remainers succeed in preventing Brexit then the British people will have to drain the cup to the final bitter dregs, as they see the last vestiges of democracy replaced by bureaucratic dictatorship, the descendants of those who won two world wars sent to fight in the interests of the EU, in other words of Germany, and any hopes of economic prosperity sacrificed, leading to levels of unemployment comparable to the nations of Southern Europe, which are being stretched on the rack of the failed project of the single currency.
The baby to which Mr Underhill refers is in fact a monster, which should be thrown out without delay.
Catholic Times - 11th May 2018
The Bishop of Paisley is quite right to rise the question of BBC bias, but of course this now far exceeds merely antipathy to Catholics.
During the Second World War the BBC spoke for the nation, but now it only speaks for the metropolitan liberal elite. It claims to be concerned about diversity, but this only extends to concentrating on the rights of sexual and social minorities, allowing no such diversity when it comes to political opinions, or respect for free speech.
Those it represents are for the most part atheists so, while carefully avoiding criticism of Islam, the BBC treats all Christians as some sort of deranged bigots, whose religious objections to such matters as abortion or gay marriage must be regarded as, at best old fashioned, at worse, a form of hate crime.
The BBC is also in the vanguard of those determined to consider those who reject the left liberal consensus on such matters as Brexit, law and order, or defence, as either dinosaurs who should be ignored, or merely morons, who can be patronised, and whose views can be brushed aside by an elite which claims to know best.
It is far past time for a root and branch reform of the BBC to restore it to at least a semblance of the impartial organisation intended by Lord Reith.
Times of Tunbridge Wells - 9th May 2018
The Labour party, together with allies in other parties, constantly accuses those who support Brexit of being racists, merely because they do not wish the UK to be ruled by bureaucrats located a foreign capital.
Your report on the local Labour party branch clearly illustrates that it that organisation which harbours racist views, as illustrated by the rampant anti Semitism now prevalent throughout the national party. When an erstwhile branch chairman can state that institutional racism is embedded within the entire Labour movement it totally undermines the claim that Labour in some way occupies the moral high ground.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 4th May 2018
That the nature of the propaganda from the losers in the EU referendum is becoming ridiculous is illustrated by the article concerning the rise in hate crime against sexual minorities, in which this is attributed by unnamed persons to Brexit. This is nonsense, as the vast majority of those voting to leave the EU did so because they were tired of unelected bureaucrats being in control of so much of our country, and had absolutely nothing to do with any sort of hate crime.
Because the Remainers have such a weak case they constantly attempt to blacken the name of their opponents by accusing them of being xenophobes, unintelligent or ignorant and now they seek to accuse them of totally unrelated prejudices against minorities. I hope that the public recognize this tactic for what it is, and do not allow themselves to be deceived by such falsehoods.
Kent Messenger - 26th April 2018
John Cobbett, in his response to myself and Alf Archer, claims that opinion polls show an growing majority against Brexit, and that those under 50 are against leaving the EU. Would these be the same polls which stated, on the morning of the referendum, that the Remain side would win by twenty points, or those which have consistently failed to forecast the results of elections with any accuracy, from the last UK general election to the success of Donald Trump? I know many youngsters who are devoted supporters of leaving the EU.
Mr Cobbett also states that we would have to respect the ECJ if we wish to trade with the EU, but clearly we need do no more than the USA, China or any other major trading nations already do, while freedom to negotiate deals with the rest of the world will more than compensate for any problems with the EU. His belief that the straightjacket of the Euro is not the main cause of the problems of Greece is naive at best.
Finally he asserts that Brexiteers do not have solutions to possible problems, which is plainly not the case. We do not need, as he postulates, a Brexit fairy, as we have a great country which can prosper mightily once the dead hand of Brussels is removed from our affairs.
Daily Telegraph - 24th April 2018
It is surely time for members of those Conservative constituency committees whose MP is attempting to sabotage Brexit to put the interests of the nation before any personal loyalty they may feel to the individual. These people won their seats on a manifesto which explicitly promised to leave the Customs Union and to seek to defeat the government on this issue now is a negation of democracy.
Once again, when this letter appeared in the Daily Telegraph, I received an offensive letter from a moron, in which he quotes the following figures from the 2016 General election:
Votes for Mrs May and Brexsh*tt 13,635,293 (29.20)
Votes against Mrs May and Brexsh*tt 33,17,818 (70.98)
The letter then states: Could Brexsh*tt be even more deader than that?
Firstly it is a surprise that such an imbecile actually reads the Daily Telegraph. Perhaps his Mum read it to him while he sat in front of his computer in his bedroom.
Secondly, and more importantly, this idiot seems to think that all the votes not cast for the Conservatives count as anti Brexit, when the Labour party ran their campaign on a manifesto which promised to honour the result of the referendum, including leaving the Customs Union, and the Single Market, so that the votes for Labour do not count as anti Brexit.
Clearly, like so many Remainers, this ignoramus neither reads manifestos, nor understands that democracy means that a majority vote in a binding referendum should be accepted and acted upon by the political class.
Kent Messenger - 12th April 2018
Your correspondent John Cobbett lists a number of problems connected to Brexit that may, or may not, arise in the future and then declares that no one voted for these, which is self evident. However what he fails to mention is that, until June 2016, the electorate did not have the opportunity to vote for, inter alia, the destruction of the British fishing fleets by the Common Fisheries Policy, higher food prices, thanks to the Common Agricultural Policy, the replacement of British Common Law by the Napoleonic code of Corpus Juris, and the transfer of executive power from their elected representatives in Westminster to unelected bureaucrats in Brussels.
Once they did have the chance the British people voted against all the aforementioned, opting instead for the return of control of our country to our own parliament, and for Britain to turn back to being an independent, sovereign nation. Perhaps Mr Cobbett should ask the Greek people whether they ever voted to see their nation virtually destroyed by the idiocies of the EU's common currency.
Mr Cobbett arrogantly demands that the clearly expressed will of the people be ignored which, if granted, would abandon the great opportunities we have within our grasp, as a free nation once again, to rebuild our position as a global trading nation, and would reduce us to the status of a vassal province of a single European state. Has he never heard of accepting a democratic decision?
Kent and Sussex Courier - 30th March 2018
Remainers, such as Richard Underhill, are attempting to use the current crisis with Russia as part of their campaign to reverse Brexit, by equating the EU with NATO, when, in reality, they are two utterly different organisations. The latter is a military alliance of independent nations, acting in mutual defence, whereas the former is a political project, aiming at submerging its constituent states in one undemocratic entity. We should receive support from all the European nations concerning Russian aggression, as is in their interests, and has nothing to do with the EU.
Mr Underhill mentions Clement Attlee but he is obviously unaware that the latter, being a true patriot, would have condemned Russia, but also totally rejected any British involvement with the European project, which he regarded as inimical to democracy.
When Mr Underhill claims that Brexiteers are not the only patriots he might care to reflect that, for every past generation, anyone who actively wished to transfer the executive power from our elected representatives in London, to unelected bureaucrats in a foreign capital, would have been regarded as anything but patriotic.
Daily Express - 23rd March 2018
To award the production of the new British passports to a foreign firm may be a minor matter, except to those workers who may lose their jobs as a result, but as a symbolic gesture it is an insult to all those who voted for Brexit.
The fact that so many of the elite cannot see that there are more important matters than money is one of the reasons that their beloved EU was rejected by the electorate.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 9th March 2018
Supporters of the EU were out in such force in the latest edition of the Courier that it would be impossible to answer in detail, without writing an essay, so I will keep it simple.
The issue of UK involvement with the European project is not, and never has been, about money or trade. It concerns the preservation of the democracy we have spent centuries evolving in the face of an organisation that was designed to be, and is, undemocratic, giving power to unelected functionaries, appointed by unrepresentative elites. It would be as if we allowed the permanent secretaries of the Civil Service to run the country without any accountability to an elected body.
If the Remainers, lacking any belief in their country, and driven by their psychological need to be told what to do by a supranational entity, succeed in brushing aside the wishes of the British people, as expressed in the referendum, then democracy in this country is dead.
I do not say this because of any hope of personal advancement, or as a result of ignorance, but by virtue of over 40 years working in Whitehall, and seeing just how far the undermining of our democracy has gone since we joined the EU. I love my country and the democracy that we have built.
Kent Messenger - 3rd March 2018
Although it appears that we may have been lucky this time, and that the gas supplies have been sufficient to cater for the needs of the population during this short cold snap, we were warned that they might not. This is a direct result of the authorities choosing to appease the fanatical green lobby, whose unproven theories about anthropological climate change have resulted in our coal industry being in the process of closing down, and the benefits of fracking being ignored.
This policy is rendered even more insane, given that nations such as China are increasing the use of fossil fuels at an annual rate which exceeds the entire amount used by the UK. It is all very well in indulging the consciences of these zealots when it does not seem to inconvenience us, but how many people will be prepared to freeze during a really hard winter so that the former can pretend that they are morally superior to the common herd.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 23rd February 2018
There are fundamental flaws in the arguments put forward by John Champneys against Brexit. Firstly he claims that we can improve the EU from within, but this has been shown to be impossible, as every time we have proposed changes we have been voted down by the other members, while the efforts of David Cameron in attempting to renegotiate membership were totally failed. Secondly Parliament agreed that the result of the EU referendum would be implemented, so it was not merely advisory, as Mr Champneys claims, and lastly a representative form of government requires that the representatives are acting in the interests of their electorate not, as is obvious today, in their own selfish interests.
Allies of Mr Champneys are claiming that the European Arrest Warrant must be retained after Brexit, yet this iniquitous device has already been used to transfer innocent people from the UK to foreign jurisdictions, based on nothing more than unsubstantiated accusations approved by courts that lack the safeguards of those in Britain. Every Briton is vulnerable to extradition, without British judicial oversight, to nations where the lack of habeas corpus could see them languish in jail for an indefinite time, a clear breach of the rights we fought so long to establish.
Contrary to the claims of Mr Champney democracy demands that the result of the referendum be implemented at once, and in full.
Catholic Times - 16th February 2018
Once again Christopher Graffius is viewing the European situation through rose tinted spectacles. No one, whether for or against Brexit, wants anything but friendship with our European neighbours, but this does not mean that we must take part in the building of a single Continental state, run by unelected bureaucrats, which is far more likely to result in conflict, ignoring as it does the legitimate concerns of the peoples involved that they retain democratic control of their future. Already the arrogant ambitions of the EU have generated conflict in the Balkans, and provoked Russia into taking action in the Ukraine.
Mr Graffius quotes a German as believing that, in time, their large immigrant communities will become fully integrated. However this ignores the reality that, while those from similar nations will do so, those with a very different cultural and religious background are likely to prove very resistant to being submerged within the host community.
I am afraid that there is far too much wishful thinking in the article by Mr Graffius and a considerable dearth of realism.
Times of Tunbridge Wells - 14th February 2018
The claim by Martin Brice that the EU is the richest free trade area in the world is factually incorrect, as it is in reality a customs union, not a free trade organisation. In the same way that Kent is in a customs union with, for instance, Somerset, but the county cannot conclude free trade agreements of its own with other countries, so the same applies to the UK while a member of the EU. As trade with the rest of the EU is set to fall precipitously over the next decades we shall be infinitely better off once we can make our own deals with the rest of the world.
Andrew Wilcox repeats the canard, often repeated by the members of the comfortable middle class, that EU migrants are more likely to work than the British population, ignoring the fact that too many greedy businesses merely wish to use these people to undercut the wages of indigenous workers, making it uneconomic for the latter to take these jobs, as they who need to live in a country with a higher cost of living than that of the countries from which the migrants are coming.
The ordinary workers of this country have been exploited by the love affair of the liberal elite with the EU, and Brexit will rebalance the economy in favour of the less well off.
Mature Times - 1st February 2018
In answer to your query as to on what one should spent the 39 billion pounds being offered by the government to the EU I would first say that no such offer should be made, as all the other major trading powers buy from and sell to the EU without the requirement to pay them for the privilege.
However, to address the specific question, I would spend half on improving the NHS, particularly aiming at reducing waiting times, and the rest on the armed forces as, no matter however successful one might be in providing decent social services, these would mean little if we were to fall victim to aggression in an increasingly dangerous world.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 9th February 2018
As usual John Champneys chooses to ignore democratic decisions when he dislikes them, and compounds this by talking his habitual nonsense about the realities involved. Does he think that the USA or China submits itself to the European Court in order to trade with the EU, while his dismissal of the growing economic power of the Commonwealth is ridiculous, given that we have strong historic links with these nations, not possessed by any other country. His reference to Nigel Farage rather assumes that all Brexiteers regard the latter as some sort of oracle when in fact, having worked alongside him in the early days of UKIP, I am aware that he has no more right to speak for us all than does any other individual.
Finally, to ignore the clearly expressed choice of the British people in a referendum, which the politicians agreed would be binding, would frankly seem to me to be a total betrayal of the democracy which we have spent centuries creating.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 26th January 2018
My wife and I recently saw the film Darkest Hour and I feel that it should be required viewing for the younger generation. It is well known that these days many people seek to reassess the reputation of Churchill in a negative manner, but no amount of revisionism can obscure the fact that, had Halifax rather than he, become PM in 1940, Britain would have concluded a shameful peace with Hitler, who would then have gone on, unhindered by British action, to conquer Russia and the Middle East. Armed with all the naval fleets and industrial might of Eurasia he would then have turned on the USA, and completed his conquest of the world.
There is no doubt that without the courageous sacrifice of the Russian people, and the might and power of the USA, we would not have been able to defeat the Nazis, but history should remember that, of the three nations, only Britain went to war in defence of others, rather than reacting to an attack upon ourselves, and that, like Horatius, had we not held the bridge at the critical time, all would have been lost.
In the current climate of political correctness it has become fashionable to decry so much of our past, but humanity owes Churchill, and indeed this country, an enormous debt, for otherwise whole races would have been exterminated and civilisation itself destroyed.
Catholic Times - 19th January 2018
Mr McKenna insults the President of the United States, ignoring the fact that have a friend in the White House, who expressly supports Britain, and who is doing no more than implementing the policies which resulted in his election, but these undemocratic forces refuse to accept democratic decisions. Those who claim to care for democracy should remember that President Trump did not come to power in a coup but as a result of the democratic choice of the American people. As a billionaire businessman President Trump may seem a strange champion for the ordinary people, but the utter selfishness of the liberal elite has proved their undoing, and we should join with him in a crusade to put the interests of the less fortunate within our societies first.
Many foolish people in this country seize every opportunity to denigrate Mr Trump and to criticise his policies, often by personal attacks on him, not their content. It is deplorable that now many are seeking to imply that there is a moral equivalence to the stances taken by President Trump and Kim Jong-un. The latter is the latest in a dynasty of dictators, who have held sway sway over an oppressed and brainwashed population, while the former is the freely elected leader of the greatest democracy in the world. Should this confrontation result in military conflict the fault will lie with North Korea, not the USA, and only those with an inbuilt prejudice against anything the latter stands for cannot understand that fact. The world owes much to the USA, which has so often defended freedom, and those who inveigh against her should consider that for many years she has been our greatest ally against those who wish to destroy us both.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 19th January 2018
Your correspondent Harry Elliott has misunderstood my letter suggesting a return to Imperial measurements, as I thought I made it clear that I was discussing weights and measures, not currency.
As far as the comments by Paul Rowlandson about change, and a second referendum, are concerned, the point is that nothing has so far altered, as we are still a member of the EU, and therefore the result of the 2016 vote has not yet been implemented. Any future referendum should only take place after we have been completely free for at least ten years, when the electorate could decide whether they wished the government of the time to apply to rejoin. I am absolutely confident that, by then, the benefits of the decision to leave would be so obvious that no such application would be approved by the voters.
The idea that that a second referendum should be held now, just because the Remainers are bad losers, is totally undemocratic, and is of course the means by which the Brussels bureaucrats have overridden the will of the people throughout Europe, demanding that voters think again if they fail to support the diktats of the EU establishment. The result in 2016 was clear and should be honoured without further delay.
Daily Mail - 17th January 2018
Those advocating a second EU referendum are deliberately ignoring the fact that nothing has so far altered, as we are still a member of the EU, and therefore the result of the 2016 vote has not yet been implemented. Any future referendum should only take place after we have been completely free for at least ten years, when the electorate could decide whether they wished the government of the time to apply to rejoin. I am absolutely confident that, by then, the benefits of the decision to leave would be so obvious that no such application would be approved by the voters.
The idea that that a second referendum should be held now, just because the Remainers are bad losers, is totally undemocratic, and is of course the means by which the Brussels bureaucrats have overridden the will of the people throughout Europe, demanding that voters think again if they fail to support the diktats of the EU establishment. The result in 2016 was clear and should be honoured without further delay.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 12th January 2018
Now that we have thankfully decided to leave the European Union it is time we turned our attention to making the most of our strengths, none more important than our relations with the Commonwealth. The latter is on track to become a truly major economic force in the next few decades, as, for example, India is expected to become the largest country by population by the middle of the century, and with the potential to rival China in the economic sphere. For historical reasons we have much more in common with the members of the Commonwealth than we ever did with the continental Europeans, and not only because some of the most important, such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand share our language. They, and many others, also have legal systems derived from ours, and their outlook on a great number of issues is similar to that of the UK. We have large numbers of citizens who have made their home here from Commonwealth nations, and perhaps we might even soon have a Prime Minister from one of these minorities, such as Priti Patel, whose patriotism and belief in this country outshines that of many British politicians.
If we develop these growing markets, and also work closely with our cousins in the USA, the future can indeed be bright for us as a nation orientated globally, not confined to the shrinking economic bloc of the EU.
Kent Messenger - 11th January 2018
Your correspondent John Cobbett appears to criticise Brexit on the basis that blue passports appear to be the only popular victory so far. It is the latter qualifier that is important, as the true victories are yet to come, once the die hard Remainers have been defeated, and we have truly left the EU. Not only will, inter alia, the billions we pay in membership fees, and the costs involved in enforcing ridiculous regulations dreamed up by Brussels bureaucrats, be available to spend on the matters he mentions, such as the NHS, but we will also restore control of our country to our own elected representatives.
Removing the dead hand of the European Commission from our affairs will make any transitional difficulties seem very minor, as we shall benefit for ever from regaining our democracy and freedom.
The Tablet - 7th January 2018
In his recent article about the EU referendum Clifford Longley is mistaken on all counts.
Firstly I, and those who like me voted to leave the EU, were not motived by any animus against our fellow Europeans, nor were we influenced by any efforts the Russians may, or may not have made in relation to the vote. Those who wish to be part of the EU believe, mistakenly, that we benefit economically from doing so, while we are concerned about the less tangible but immensely more valuable matters of democracy and the right to govern ourselves. Physical nourishment is not sufficient for a healthy life, as man also has spiritual needs, and we also have the need for freedom and the right to follow our own destiny. Clearly those whose main priority is short term financial gain will never find common ground with those who value other qualities more highly. The irony in all of this is that the Remainers are wrong in thinking that we must sacrifice our economic prospects in order to leave the EU as, in reality, we shall become more prosperous once we are free to follow our own path. It is bad enough to throw away one's freedom for a perceived financial advantage but even worse if one's grounds for doing so are fallacious.
Mr Longley is also wrong about the issue of parliamentary sovereignty. The sad truth is that the professional politicians can no more be trusted to vote to implement Brexit than turkeys could be expected to vote for Christmas. If we free ourselves from the EU then they will no longer be able to look forward to the culmination of their careers being a very well paid sinecure in the European parliament, or its overweening bureaucracy, while, in their time as MPs, they would not be able to hide behind the excuse that they cannot do what their constituents wish, as the executive competence has passed to Brussels. As far as the Lords are concerned, despite the presence of some doughty fighters for British independence, such as Lord Stoddart of Swindon, too many are the relics of the era of Heath and Wilson, whose unwavering support for Brussels eclipses any consideration of the interests, or the wishes of the British people.
The attitude being taken by many parliamentarians must concern all who believe in democracy. Over recent decades we have seen the creation of what amounts to a modern version of the Roman Republic's cursus honorum, where members of the elite moved up the ladder of political power, from Quaestor to Consul, a system which endured until undermined by the machinations of Marius and Sulla, thus paving the way for the Caesars. Now we see a similar oligarchy in Westminster where so many in parliament move from student politics to become political assistants, then political advisors, before receiving their reward as MPs or MEPs, without ever working in the real world inhabited by those they claim to represent. In this they have much more in common with their fellow continental politicians than they do with the ordinary British voter.
In truth we face the uncomfortable fact that the clearly expressed desire of the people may yet be negated by the manoeuvrings of those supposedly representing them, but who will put their self interest first. This could lead to a constitutional crisis and it is clear that the battle is far from over. This fight is not about economics but relates to greater aspirations for freedom and democracy.
Kent Messenger - 5th January 2018
As your columnist Ed McConnell find Brexit so boring one can only assume that, had he been around in the 1930s, he would have found the debate on rearmament equally uninteresting, despite the fact that it concerned the survival of the country.
Can he not see that the whole future of the nation depends on the result of Brexit, as either we once more become an independent, self governing democracy, or we accept relegation to the level of a province in a German dominated single European state. There is nothing boring about such a choice.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 5th January 2018
John Hurst may hope that the UK will stay within a quasi single market and customs union, but of course that is not what the people voted for in the referendum. The reality is that we can trade with the EU on precisely the same terms as do the USA, Russia and China, while paying them nothing for the privilege. It is only the Remainers such as Mr Hurst who wish to pay them as much as a brass farthing.
As far as Richard Landholt's poll figures are concerned has he already forgotten that the pollsters were projecting a win for the Remain campaign right up until the real vote, when the people showed just what they thought of his beloved EU. It is past time that he, and those that think like him, accepted that they lost, and join the rest of us in making a success of our freedom from this protectionist and declining body.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 5th January 2018
While it is excellent news that, following Brexit, we are to receive back our blue UK passports, the effect is largely symbolic, and another change which would certainly be popular would be the restoration of Imperial measurements. It may be that scientists and engineers would need to continue with metric measurements, but there is absolutely no reason why the system should be used in day to day life. It is worth noting that our greatest ally, the USA, has not adopted metric measurements, and has no intention of doing so.
The metric system was originally enforced by Napoleon but it is reputed that he personally did not favour doing so, because he considered it largely disconnected from everyday experience. While we can easily relate measurements such as a foot or inch to the real world the metre, and its subdivisions, are soulless concepts.
Some complain that there would be problems, as youngsters have been brought up on the metric system, and would not understand the Imperial, but of course the same argument applied in reverse, when the UK government tried to abolish the latter. Contrary to the beliefs of so called progressives what can be changed can also be changed back.
While this will necessitate those arrogant public and private bodies, who decided to install illegal signs in metres and kilometres, to replace them, that is a small price to pay, and the overall change will be a fine memorial to those who fought for many years against local councils who prosecuted street traders for daring to offer the public what they wanted, not what the bureaucrats demanded.
Daily Telegraph - 1st January 2018
The arrogance of Lord Adonis is unbounded, referring to the democratic will of the British people as a spasm, while his ignorance is unlimited, failing to recognize that there are probably more on the left than the right of the political spectrum who loathe the EU, and whose support won the referendum for the Leave campaign. This conceited peer should be told, as Clement Attlee said to Harold Laski, a period of silence on your part would be welcome.
Kent Messenger - 28th December 2017
Readers should not allow the busy run-up to Christmas to distract them from the political maelstrom into which this country may plunge at any moment. The current situation in the Conservative party resembles that when Sir Robert Peel enacted the repeal of the Corn Laws, not because Mrs May is motivated by any great principle, as was Peel, but rather because her weak and appeasing stance will inevitably result in her own party being justifiably being eclipsed for many years, as the electorate will see that it lacks the will to even conserve our democracy by defying the EU.
Catholic Times - 15th December 2017
While I do not believe that religious leaders should divorce themselves from politics I feel that the remarks by Cardinal Canizares concerning Catalonian independence are ill judged.
When a majority of a people with an historically distinct identity express the democratic wish to become an independent state then they should be permitted to do so. While I doubt very much that the people of Scotland would benefit by becoming a separate nation I would never say that they should not be permitted to do so, and surely no one would claim that the people of Eire should have been prevented from becoming independent of the UK.
Great blame must attach to the government of Spain for using unnecessary force to stop the referendum in Catalonia, as, had they merely let it go ahead, then the chances are that the result would not have been a majority for independence, something which looks far more likely now.
It is not good enough to say that the national law prevent referenda, as not all laws are of themselves worthy of being observed, if they run counter to true democracy. After all the Nuremberg Laws of Nazi Germany were the law of the land, but no decent person could be expected to obey them.
In his comments, and in particular those directed at the Bishop of Solsona, the Cardinal puts himself firmly on the side of those, such as the unelected bureaucratic rulers of the EU, who attach greater importance to maintaining the status quo, rather than recognizing the legitimate desire of peoples to take control of their own affairs.
London Evening Standard - 5th December 2017
While the people of Eire have a valid interest in the border with Northern Island it would not be democratic for the concerns of a foreign country with a population of less than five million to override the clearly expressed choice of the UK, a nation of over sixty million. Whatever solution is arrived at it must not include the latter remaining within the customs union or the single market.
Daily Telegraph - 21st November 2017
At a time when we need extra funding for such vital causes as the NHS, and a massive increase in house building, many of our politicians appears willing to pay the EU tens of billions of pounds, merely in order to obtain trading rights which nations such as the USA and China enjoy without charge.
The Telegraph has made clear the reasons for these extortionate demands, highlighting warnings that areas such as Andalucia in Spain, Sardinia in Italy and the Ardennes in Belgium will lose funding for projects once the British contributions cease. The question must be why on earth should our people ever have been obliged to suffer deficiencies in our hospitals etc. in order to finance such matters.
Our politicians must not be allowed to pay the bribes demanded by Brussels.
Catholic Times - 3rd November 2017
I always used to wonder why civil wars seemed to arose so much more passion than wars between states but after 16 months since the EU referendum I can now understand. You can only call decent, law abiding fellow citizens, who are concerned for the survival of their democracy, xenophobes, racists, morons or gullible fools so many times before provoking even the normally stoic British into feeling great resentment, or even intense dislike. If those who supported Remain should succeed in overturning the decision taken last year, do they really think that they can just expect the majority to tamely accede to their demands? The potential for a massive dislocation of our society grows every day as democracy itself is undermined by the selfish actions of those who refuse to accept the clear result of a democratic vote.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 27th October 2017
During the Second World War my parents suffered the destruction of their house in the Blitz, and lost members of their family on active duty, yet, along with the vast majority of the British people, they remained resolute and determined in the face of the German war machine, eventually seeing victory won. Now we are being treated to the nauseating spectacle of our political class begging unelected Brussels bureaucrats, operating as agents of Berlin, for crumbs from their table. In doing so they are treating with contempt the democratic will of seventeen million Britons, and exposing this country to a national humiliation, merely in order that they might protect their own self interest.
Watching this ongoing exhibition of pusillanimous selfishness I feel physically sick. If the British people are really so sunk in apathy that they will allow this betrayal by the politicians when, to quote George Orwell, they could shake them off like a horse shakes off flies, then the country into which I was born, and loved all my life, is truly dead. It begs the question as to why we went to war in 1914 to prevent German hegemony in Europe, if we are now prepared tamely to bow the knee to Berlin.
Kent on Sunday - 22nd October 2017
A recent letter from one of your correspondents concerning the EU is so full of factual errors that it is unworthy of a response, but he clearly possesses all the arrogance of those on the Remain side. For many years those who oppose EU membership have have been described as xenophobes and racists by the Europhiles, and now they have added morons, or gullible fools, to the list, while too many of us have treated Remainers as misguided, but nevertheless decent people basically concerned with the future of the country. From now on we must describe them, and treat them, as either fools or knaves. The former are idiots, who refuse to recognize the truth about the EU, and swallow whole the propaganda pumped out by the BBC, and much of the media. They include all those business people, who completely fail to understand that the issue is not one of their profits, but of the survival of our democracy. The knaves, who know what is involved, yet still support it, are far worse. Those who genuinely wish to hand control of this country to an alien bureaucracy based in Brussels, are nothing less than agents of a foreign power.
As far as the continentals are concerned, while we seek friendship with the peoples, those who control the EU, in particular the European Commission, are not what our politicians call them, friends or partners, but opponents and indeed adversaries. They have treated the people of the this county as fools, and seek to humble the nation to which most of them owe the freedom they have enjoyed since the defeat of the totalitarians. Our useless political class may desire to crawl to them but, by doing so, they bring shame on us all, and should be rejected as unworthy to represent the British people.
If Brexit is reversed then democracy in this country no longer has any meaning. We shall be trapped in the EU until its internal contradictions destroy it, but that could take years, and our people will suffer under a foul dictatorship until then. The message must be Go now! and the enemies of democracy, both in parliament and outside, must be rejected by all decent people.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 20th October 2017
No nation is perfect but I believe that Britain to be one of the finest, and it is a country to whom the peoples of Europe owe a great debt, for, if it were not for our steadfastness in the 1940s, they would have been left to the tender mercies of the Nazis for generations. As far as the continentals are concerned, while we seek friendship with the peoples, the politicians have treated the people of the this county as fools, and seek to humble our nation. Our political class may desire to crawl to them but, by doing so, they bring shame on us all, and should be rejected as unworthy to represent the British people
Clearly there is no point in continuing to try and reason with the supporters of the Remain side in the EU referendum, as there are none so blind as those who will not see. However there are options open to the seventeen million who voted to leave the EU, and who are now being ignored. They should boycott all those businesses and publications which are run by those who support the EU, and make known that they are taking such action. While it may not always be possible we should factor in the Brexit dimension so that, for instance, we favour products of companies whose owners have declared for Brexit, drink in a public house chain whose CEO is a convinced opponent of the EU, choose an airline, and broadband supplier, not owned by a declared supporter of Brussels, buy goods from outside the EU, rather than from within, and consider taking foreign holidays in Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, the USA, etc, in preference to, in particular, Germany. The economic impact would make the EU, and their allies in the UK, squeal, and be not so gung-ho for bowing the knee to Brussels.
The ongoing campaign by the political establishment to undermine the will of the people means that we have reached a crisis for our democracy, and those very people should now make clear that they will not stand for such a betrayal.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 13th October 2017
The debacle of the Conservative party conference shows yet again that their leaders intend, as they always have, to put the narrow interests of their party before those of the country. The same sort of people who cheered Neville Chamberlain and his piece of paper, and voted with Edward Heath to declare themselves the party of Europe, are determined to negate the result of the EU referendum, in order that their friends in big business and the banks continue to benefit at the expense of the rest of the British people.
Now that Jeremy Corbyn has turned his back on his lifelong opposition to EU membership, and yielded to the Blairites in his party, it is past time for the electorate to realise that they are being taken for fools, and treated with contempt, by the political establishment. Only by pressurising these self interested politicians can we hope to achieve the sort of free and prosperous future that beckons outside the EU. The country has a once in a lifetime opportunity to reassert its place as a leader among the nations, which will be lost forever if we allow ourselves, as is desired by the supporters of the Remain campaign, to once again tamely submit to the diktats of Brussels bureaucrats.
Times of Tunbridge Wells - 20th September 2017
I assume that if the favourite football team of Ray Parkes lost in the FA Cup final he would demand that it be replayed until a different result was achieved. The Remain campaign comprehensively lost the referendum but, rather than accepting the outcome, demands that it be rerun until their side wins. This is of course the way in which the EU operates, having forced even the French to vote again over the Maastricht treaty, ensuring that they complied with the wishes of the Brussels bureaucrats.
As far as his statement about MPs is concerned, the fact is that we are leaving the EU, in accordance with the wishes of the people, so it is up to all our legislators to work towards that end, not to try to place their personal views above those of the electorate.
Daily Express - 15th September 2017
The state of the union speech by Jean-Claude Juncker vindicates all the warnings given by opponents of the European project over the imperial ambitions of the latter to create a single European state.
At the time of the 1975 referendum Enoch Powell and Tony Benn were derided for pointing out the ultimate aim was a United States of Europe, but now this is clear to all.
The implementation of a full Brexit is the only way to prevent the UK becoming merely a province in an European empire.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 8th September 2017
The short letters from Richard Landolt and R J Chellel manages to brilliantly encapsulate all the arrogance, ignorance and lack of self awareness that one expects of those who refuse to accept democratic decisions. As far as the latter correspondent is concerned I can assure him that, although once a subscriber to Private Eye, I ceased to be one when it became clear that the arrogant adolescents who run that magazine, despite years of pointing out all the irredeemable faults of the EU, have done nothing but belittle supporters of Brexit since the referendum. In addition, with reference to his implication that I write as a kind of Sir Herbert Gusset, he clearly does not comprehend that the most consistent and principled opponents of EU membership have always been on the left, not the right.
Mr Landolt claims that I use bluster and assertion, rather than argument and fact, are so blatantly at odds with the reality that they are risible. I have pointed out time and again that the EU is corrupt, as evidenced by its failure to have its accounts certified by its own accountants year after year, that is undemocratic, not merely because its architects Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman explicitly stated that it must be so, to prevent popular opinion impeding its progress, but because its structure is designed in such as way that the unelected bureaucrats of the European Commission are its true rulers, the European Parliament being nothing more than a well paid talking shop, whose members may not introduce primary legislation, can only reject proposals from the Commission in their entirety, unable to amend them, and may only speak on any subject for ninety seconds from the floor. That it is dysfunctional can be seen from the realities of the migrant crisis, caused by its insane open borders policy, and by its despicable treatment of the Greek people, reduced to penury on the orders of Germany. Enough facts for you Mr Landolt?
My opponents seem to find my letters boring so I can only suggest that they do not read them, and continue to live in their own Panglossian little world, where all is for the best in this best of possible worlds, provided of course that the European Commission says it is.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 1st September 2017
John Smallcombe asks about the position of supporters of Brexit regarding job losses attributed to our victory in the referendum. As a worker and lifelong trade unionist I naturally sympathize with those who have lost their jobs at Southern Salads, but one should remember that, well before June 2016, most financial analysts were constantly pointing out that the pound was grossly overvalued, and many companies with significant exposure to the exchange rate were taking steps to mitigate the inevitable correction. Those that did not were therefore vulnerable, whatever the result of the referendum, and that they should then blame the outcome of their negligence on Brexit is unacceptable.
More strategically, any major change, such as leaving the EU after forty years, would be bound to have some negative effects but, as Churchill said, weighty matters must be judged as a whole, and already we can see that large parts of British manufacturing are benefiting from the weaker pound, as is our tourist industry. When one adds to that the potential for much larger economic gains as we turn back to a global trading role, plus the fact that we are regaining the right to control our own affairs, without interference from Brussels, one can see that overall the country will be much better off as a sovereign nation once again. Those who attempt to claim that supporting Remain would have protected jobs are being disingenuous, as large numbers of workers from EU countries clearly reduces employment opportunities for the British people, and only by leaving the organisation can we stop this happening.
I have no doubt that in ten years time people will wonder why we ever hesitated in breaking free of the corrupt, dysfunctional and undemocratic European Union.
As far as the accusation that I am a far right supporter made by N Howe is concerned this is completely at odds with the facts. I was chairman of my union branch for twenty years, supported the Labour party until it was captured by those such as Blair, and share my anti EU position with true democratic socialists such as Labour representatives Kate Hoey MP, Kelvin Hopkins MP and Gisela Stuart (for twenty years Labour MP in Birmingham).
Daily Telegraph - 1st September 2017
Supporters of the Remain campaign who claim that leaving the EU is too difficult, or even impossible, are talking nonsense. Our involvement in the European project was an aberration, running counter to hundreds of years of British history, and it was inevitable that we would eventually recognize that fact and leave. For the sake of everyone the sooner the better.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 25th August 2017
In his criticism of me Geoff Marshall resorts to that most traditional form, play the man and not the ball, or, as a man of his obvious erudition would probably prefer to label it, an ad hominem attack.
I left my grammar school at the age of sixteen in order to join the work force so my letters may not meet the high standards expected by Mr Marshall, but I suspect that this would be of little concern to him, were he to agree with the sentiments expressed therein. He carefully avoids the issues about which I write, preferring to make, in his sarcastic, condescending and pompous way, assertions about the style in which I address them.
As the matter upon which I write most often is the need to break free of the EU I have no doubt that Mr Marshall is a supporter of the Remain side, yet he has the arrogance to accuse me of being a reactionary. In reality those of his persuasion have dominated the political life of this country for decades, and they are now reeling from finding that they have failed to convince the British people of the correctness of their position. In June 2016, in one of the greatest test of democratic opinion ever attempted in the UK, those supporting leaving the EU won a convincing victory but the reactionaries of the other side refuse to recognize this fact. It is radicals such as myself who have always refused to be complacent in the face of the encroaching bureaucratic dictatorship of Brussels, and it is no surprise that we find it necessary to repeat our arguments ad nauseam, for to do otherwise would leave the field open for those who prefer to make constant unsubstantiated and negative assertions about Brexit, usually, as with Mr Marshall, couched in an uncompromising and nasty manner.
Until the Thought Police silence us those who disagree with the boringly repetitive Remainers will continue to respond to their distortions of the truth. That, Mr Marshall, is how a democracy should work.
Catholic Times - 18th August 2017
Christopher Graffius and Father Marsden both seek to continue the discredited Project Fear, which so spectacularly failed at the time of the EU referendum. It is far more likely that the UK, and all of the British people, will actually benefit once we are free of the dead hand of the corrupt and incompetent Brussels bureaucracy, who have only this week been exposed as being as expert at greedily exploiting their expenses, as were so many of our own MPs a few years ago. Even were there to be a period of slower growth while the economy adapted to the new situation this would undoubtedly be worthwhile. In fact, to regain control over our own affairs, to save our democracy from bureaucratic dictatorship, to put an end to interference by foreign judges, and to have the freedom to trade globally would make any temporary monetary cost a bargain.
At least Mr Graffius has the honesty to admit that the decision to leave was not primarily motivated by economic reasons, but Father Marsden, in his comment about right wing delusions, shows that he completely fails to comprehend that opposition to membership of the EU has always been strongest on the left of the political spectrum, as is evidenced by the oft stated opinions of, among others, giants such as Attlee, Gaitskill, Tony Benn and Michael Foot and, more recently, Labour MPs such as Kate Hoey, Gisela Stuart and Kelvin Hopkins.
It is time that those who lost the referendum stopped opposing the will of the people and joined the national effort to make Brexit a resounding success.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 4th August 2017
As the date for our departure from the EU draws ever nearer the Remainers are becoming more and more hysterical in their efforts to convince us that we should reverse the decision taken at the referendum. Having comprehensively failed to make our flesh creep, like the fat boy in Pickwick Papers, with Project Fear they seem to have at least learned the lesson that the British people are concerned about matters other than the purely financial, so the warnings now emanating from the pro EU camp are taking a different tack. First they tell us that cancer patients will suffer because of our withdrawal from Euratom, despite it being pointed out that leaving the EU will not affect this one whit, as Switzerland is an associated member, without being a member of the EU. Now we have a scare story about chlorinated chicken, trumpeted by those such as the BBC, which seeks to derail a major post Brexit trade treaty between the two most important English speaking democracies, although American consumers have not suffered because of the practice, and it is merely an insignificant detail in a much greater discussion.
The Remainers in the Conservative party think they are winning, thanks to those such as Philip Hammond trying to undermine Brexit, but they should beware. It is becoming increasingly obvious that the long held Euroscepticism of Jeremy Corbyn is coming to the fore and, if he can neutralise the Blairites, and return Labour to the position which the party took towards the European project under great leaders such as Attlee and Gaitskill, who rejected British involvement entirely, he will benefit hugely. The Conservatives will find that attracting the votes of overpaid CEOs of multinational companies and of the denizens of the liberal enclaves of north London, will be insignificant compared to the votes going to those who promise to honour the will of the people expressed in the referendum.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 28th July 2017
The suggestion by Paul Rowlandson that the electorate might change their mind about Brexit is clearly totally impracticable, as we cannot keep leaving and rejoining the EU, even if the other members were willing to let us. The truth is that the political class of the 1970s, particularly Heath and Wilson, deliberately misled the people as to the ultimate aim of the European project to create a single state, pretending that it was just a trading arrangement, and on that basis membership was accepted by the average person. Since then we have had over forty years experience of the organisation, during which time we have seen it establish its own flag, anthem and parliament, while making it clear that the legal system and the defence forces will also be federalised. The decision last year was not taken on a whim, but because the scales have fallen from the eyes of the British people and they do not want to be part of such a federal state. That we have also been used as a milch cow by Brussels, billions of pounds of our taxes going towards supporting most of the rest of Europe, is yet another reason we have had enough.
Now that the ambitions of the Eurocrats are clear to all but the most blinkered, the choice of leaving is one which will not be reversed to satisfy the liberal elite, unless democracy no longer has meaning in this country.
Catholic Times - 28th July 2017
In common with other supporters of EU membership Christopher Graffius makes much of the legislative problems associated with Brexit. Although what he details is indeed complex there are two obvious points to be made.
Firstly those of us who have opposed the EU for decades always made clear that, in the event we were in a position to do so, we would leave immediately, allowing any negotiations to take place later, between an independent and sovereign UK and the EU, not, as is the case at the moment, between the EU and a subservient province. The blame for the latter situation rests with our political class, who do not want to leave, and are deliberately obstructing the process. Article 50 was always intended as a blocking mechanism to prevent states leaving, not as an aid to doing so.
Secondly, and more importantly, the issue is essentially not one for lawyers or accountants but concerns democracy. The truth is that the political class of the 1970s, particularly Heath and Wilson, deliberately misled the people as to the ultimate aim of the European project to create a single state, pretending that it was just a trading arrangement, and on that basis membership was accepted by the average person. Since then we have had over forty years experience of the organisation, during which time we have seen it establish its own flag, anthem and parliament, while making it clear that the legal system and the defence forces will also be federalised. The decision last year was not taken on a whim, but because the scales have fallen from the eyes of the British people and they do not want to be part of such a federal state. That we have also been used as a milch cow by Brussels, billions of pounds of our taxes going towards supporting most of the rest of Europe, is yet another reason we have had enough.
Now that the ambitions of the Eurocrats are clear to all but the most blinkered, the choice of leaving is one which will not be reversed because it may be a little difficult in the short term, unless democracy no longer has meaning in this country.
Kent on Sunday - 23rd July 2017
In his recent letter Ray Duff shows once again how ignorant he is of the realities of the world. To begin with the Trident submarines are not rendered redundant by drone technology and, if we were to abjure nuclear weapons, Mr Duff would find out what it means to live in a dangerous world where rogue states could blackmail us with their own H bombs, as we would have nothing to deter them. Perhaps Mr Duff would then rely on the goodwill of Donald Trump, whom he so denigrates, to come to our aid.
As far as Brexit is concerned it becomes more obvious by the day that this is very much a class issue. Those of us from the working class, particularly lifelong trade unionists such as myself, know how employers have used the EU freedom of movement to undercut the wages of our own people, while the complacent, smug middle class only care about retaining their cheap nannies and plumbers, being unconcerned about the effects of their selfishness on their less well off compatriots.
It is a disgrace that so many Labour MPs are also prepared to support the EU, as the effect of its policies on the labour market is that employees being forced to work zero hours contacts, youngsters to accept unpaid internships, if they wish to gain a foothold in the labour market, and the virtual extirpation of decent career structures, where loyalty and experience are valued and rewarded.
No one who claims to represent the needs of workers should be found on the side of the Remainers, but of course many such as Mr Duff have no understanding of what is really involved.
Kent and Sussex Courier - 21st July 2017
As the Conservative party represents the interests of big business it is not surprising that a group of their MPs are conspiring to frustrate the will of the people concerning leaving the EU, due to the iniquitous provision for freedom of movement meaning that employers can use cheaper foreign labour from countries with a much lower standard of living, thus undercutting the wages of ordinary British people. What is truly regrettable is that so many Labour MPs are also prepared to support their actions, as the policy leads to employees being forced to work zero hours contacts, youngsters to accept unpaid internships, if they wish to gain a foothold in the labour market, and the virtual extirpation of decent career structures, where loyalty and experience are valued and rewarded.
No one who claims to represent the needs of workers should be found on the side of the Remainers, as the latter only care about retaining their cheap nannies and plumbers, being unconcerned about the effects of their selfishness on their less well off compatriots.
Daily Telegraph - 18th July 2017
If this country is still a democracy then the clearly expressed wishes of over seventeen million voters should take precedence over the personal prejudices of one man, even if he is the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
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